DISCOURSES 


ADDRESSES 


SUBJECTS   OF  AMERICAN   HISTORY 
ARTS,  AND   LITERATURE. 


BY    GULIAN    C/:    V  E  R  P  L  A  N  C  K. 


NEW- YORK: 
PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  J.  &  J.  HARPER, 

NO.  82,  CLIFF-STREET, 

AND    SOLD    BY    THE    BOOKSELLERS    GENERALLY    THROUGH 
OUT    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

M  DCCC  XXXIII. 


[Entered  according  to  the  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-three,  by  GULIAN  C.  VERPLANCK,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the 
District  Court  of  the  United  States  for^tke  Soutjierji  District  of  New  York.] 


Hoary  Ludwifi",  Printer. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  discourses  and  speeches,  delivered  on 
different  occasions,  were  printed  at  the  time,  and  some  of 
them  passed  through  more  than  one  edition  in  a  pamphlet 
form.  Though  they  were  pronounced  on  various  occa 
sions  and  at  considerable  intervals  of  time,  they  have 
yet  a  general  unity  of  purpose,  being  all  designed  to 
direct  public  attention  to  the  history,  biography,  arts,  and 
literature  of  our  own  country.  It  has,  therefore,  been 
thought,  that  they  might  be  appropriately  collected  and 
republished  together. 

The  rapid  progress  of  improvement  in  the  United 
States  has  made  some  of  the  criticisms  and  remarks 
contained  in  them  less  applicable  than  they  were  when 
first  written.  For  instance,  the  publication  of  several 
excellent  works  of  American  Biography,  within  the  last 
two  or  three  years,  has  taken  away  much  of  the  justice 
of  the  complaint  in  the  Historical  Discourse,  of  our 
neglect  of  the  memory  of  our  illustrious  dead. 

As,  however,  this  and  some  similar  remarks  on  other 
points  were  perfectly  correct  at  the  time,  and  still  apply, 
though  much  less  forcibly,  it  has  not  been  thought  proper 
to  erase  them. 

NEW-YORK,  MAY  20,  1833. 


M182637 


CONTENTS. 


I.  Anniversary  Discourse  before  the  New-York  Historical  Society. 
II. .  Eulogy  upon  the  Founder  of  Maryland. 

III.  Address  delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  Tenth  Exhibition  of  the 

American  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. 

IV.  The  Schoolmaster — Tribute  to  the  Memory  of  Daniel  H.  Barnes. 

V.  Address  delivered  before  the  Literary  Societies  of  Columbia 

College,  on  the  eve  of  the  Annual  Commencement. 

VI.  Speech  on  the  law  of  Literary  Property. 

VII.  Lecture  Introductory  to  the  several  courses  delivered  before  the 
Mercantile  Association  of  New- York. 


HISTORICAL     DISCOURSE, 


ON  an  occasion  like  this,  in  addressing  a  society  formed 
for  the  purpose  of  exploring  and  preserving  the  history 
of  our  own  country,  I  know  of  no  theme  that  can  be  se 
lected  so  appropriate  and  so  copious,  as  the  eulogy  of 
those  excellent  men  who  have  most  largely  contributed 
to  raise  or  support  our  national  institutions,  and  to  form 
or  to  elevate  our  national  character. 

The  wide  field  of  research,  which  the  history  of  this 
hemisphere  opens  to  us,  may  indeed  present  to  the  phi 
losophical,  as  well  as  to  the  antiquarian  inquirer,  many 
objects  of  more  curiosity,  and,  perhaps,  some  of  greater 
utility.  The  observation  of  the  various  results  in  legis 
lation  or  jurisprudence,  in  public  and  individual  charac 
ter,  already  produced  in  this  great  school  of  political 
experiment  by  hitherto  untried  combinations  of  the  moral 
elements  of  society — the  examination  and  arrangement 
of  that  immense  mass  of  useful  facts  exhibited  in 
our  statistics — the  investigation  of  the  character,  the 
languages,  the  traditions,  the  manners,  and  the  supersti 
tions  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  country — the 
collecting  and  accurately  ascertaining  the  minor  facts  and 
minuter  details  of  those  great  achievements  which  have 
rendered  the  history  of  our  liberties  so  glorious — all  have 
their  use  and  value.  Hence  may  be  drawn  materials 
A 


•''id- 


"HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE, 


enabling  the  philosopher  to  pour  new  light  on  the  moral 
and  physical  nature  of  man  ;  and  it  is  thus  that  are  pre 
served  those  fleeting  forms  of  the  past,  which  may  here 
after  rise  and  live  again  at  the  powerful  bidding  of  the 
poet  or  the  painter- 

But  the  habit  of  looking  to  our  own  annals  for  exam 
ples  of  life,  and  of  rendering  due  honour  to  those  illustri 
ous  dead,  the  rich  fruits  of  whose  labours  we  are  now 
enjoying,  has  a  more  moral,  and,  I  think,  a  nobler  aim. 
In  paying  the  tribute  of  admiration  to  genius,  and  of  gra 
titude  to  virtue,  we  ourselves  become  wiser  and  better. 
Instead  of  leaving  our  love  of  country  to  rest  upon  the 
cold  preference  of  reason,  that  slowest  and  most  feeble  of 
all  motives  of  action,  we  thus  call  up  the  patriotism  of 
the  heart  in  aid  of  that  of  the  head.  Our  love  of  coun 
try  is  exalted  and  puritied  by  being  mingled  with  the 
feelings  of  gratitude,  and  reverence  for  virtue ;  and  our 
reverence  for  virtue  is  warmed  and  animated,  and  brought 
home  to  our  hearts  by  its  union  with  the  pride  and  the 
love  of  our  country. 

In  this  respect  we  have  not  been  faithful  to  our  own 
honour.  The  short  period  of  our  existence  as  a  people 
has  been  fruitful  in  models  of  public  virtue.  Other  lands 
may  boast  of  having  given  birth  to  men  of  rarer  genius, 
and  of  more  splendid  achievement.  Yet  how  often  has 
that  genius  been  the  base  flatterer  or  the  willing  instru 
ment  of  oppression  ;  how  often  has  it  been  low  and  self 
ish  in  its  ambition  ;  how  often  black  with  crime.  But 
the  history  of  our  illustrious  men  is  a  story  of  liberty, 
virtue,  and  glory.  Such,  however,  has  been  our  culpa 
ble  negligence  of  their  fame,  that  little  other  memorial 
is  to  be  found  of  most  of  them,  than  what  has  been  in 
corporated  in  the  public  records  of  their  times.  All  that 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  11 


is  instructive  in  their  private  biography,  all  that  is  i 
vidual  in  their  characters,  is  rapidly  fading  from  memo 
ry  ;  and  there  is  danger,  lest  to  the  next  generation  the 
names  of  Greene,  and  Marion,  and  Wayne  —  of  Otis, 
Laurens,  Rutledge,  and  Pendleton,  —  of  Dickinson,  Sher 
man,  Ellsworth,  and  Hamilton,  will  be  mere  names  of 
history,  calling  up  no  associations,  inculcating  no  ex 
ample,  kindling  no  emotion.  Their  memories  will,  in 
deed,  be  bright  and  ever-during,  but  they  will  shine  as 
from  afar,  like  the  stars  of  other  systems,  whose  cheering 
warmth  and  useful  light  are  lost  in  the  distance, 

It  is  not  my  present  intention  to  attempt  to  supply 
any  part  of  this  deficiency.  The  collection  of  facts, 
either  floating  in  the  memories  of  contemporaries,  or 
buried  in  the  mass  of  unpublished  correspondence  and 
official  documents,  is  an  employment  for  which  I  have 
had  neither  the  opportunity  nor  the  leisure.  The  task 
I  have  assigned  to  myself  is  much  less  laborious, 
but  scarcely  less  grateful.  It  is  the  commemoration  of 
some  of  those  virtuous  and  enlightened  men  of  Europe, 
who,  long  ago,  looking  with  a  prophetic  eye  towards 
the  destinies  of  this  new  world,  and  regarding  it  as  the 
chosen  refuge  of  freedom  and  truth,  were  moved  by  a 
holy  ambition  to  become  the  ministers  of  the  Most  High, 
in  bestowing  upon  it  the  blessings  of  religion,  morals, 
letters,  and  liberty. 

When  we  look  back  upon  the  earlier  European  dis 
coveries  and  conquests  in  this  hemisphere,  the  mind 
recoils  with  horror  from  the  scene  of  carnage  and  de 
vastation  that  opens  the  mighty  drama  of  American 
history.  The  genius  and  power  of  civilized  man  have 
scarce  ever  been  displayed  to  his  weaker  and  un 
taught  brethren,  except  as  ministering  to  avarice  and 


12  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

ferocity ;  and  never  were  that  genius  and  power  put 
forth  in  more  terrible  and  guilty  superiority,  than  when 
the  American  continent  was  first  laid  open  to  Spanish 
enterprise  and  valour.  Unrelenting  avarice,  under  the 
mask  of  religion,  sent  forth  band  after  band  of  ferocious 
adventurers,  to  rapine  and  murder.  In  the  powerful 
language  of  Cowper, 

"The  hand  that  slew,  till  it  could  slay  no  more,. 
Was  glued  to  the  sword-hilt,  with  Indian  gore. 

Among  these  stern  and  bloody  men  there  was  one  of  a 
far  different  mould.  The  young  Las  Casas.*  whose 
spirit  of  adventure  had  induced  him,  at  the  age  of  nine 
teen,  to  accompany  Columbus  in  his  second  expedition 
to  the  West-Indies,  was  one  of  those  rare  compounds 
which  nature  forms,  from  time  to  time,  for  the  orna 
ment  and  consolation  of  the  human  race,  blending  a  rest 
less  and  unwearied  energy  of  mind  with  a  heart  alive  to 
every  kind  affection,  elevated  by  piety,  warm  with  bene 
volence,  and  kindling  at  wrong.  He  saw,  with  grief  and 
indignation,  the  crimes  of  his  countrymen,  and  the  cry 
of  the  oppressed  entered  deep  into  his  heart.  From  that 
hour,  like  the  young  Hannibal,  but  in  a  purer  cause,  he 
vowed  himself  to  one  sacred  object.  Rejecting  with 
scorn,  every  lure  held  out  by  interest  or  ambition,  to 
tempt  him  from  his  course,  refuting  by  the  blameless 
sanctity  of  his  life,  all  the  calumnies  showered  upon 


*For  the  general  facts  of  Las  Casas'  life,  see  Robertson's  America, 
passim.  Dupin ;  Bibliotheque  des  Auteurs  Ecclesiastique,  16me  siecle. 
Rees'  Cyclopedia,  article,  "  Las  Casas."  Nouveau  Dictionnaire,  His- 
torique,  Paris ;  and  especially,  "Apologie  de  Barthelemy  Las  Casas, 
EvequedeChiappa,"'  par  M.  Gregoire>  in  the  Memoirs  de  x'Institut  Na* 
tionale,"  An,  8. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  13 

him.  despising  danger,  disregarding  toil,  braving  alike  the 
sneer  of  the  world  and  the  frown  of  power,  he  laboured 
with  a  benevolence  which  never  cooled,  and  a  zeal  which 
knew  no  remission,  for  more  than  seventy  years,  as  the 
protector  of  the  Indian  race.  Dangerous  as  the  navigation 
was  at  that  period,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  nine  times  for 
this  purpose,  besides  traversing  Europe,  and  penetrating, 
in  all  directions,  the  trackless  wilds  of  the  new  world. 
"We  see  him  at  one  time  breaking  through  the  restraints 
of  courtly  form,  whilst  he  charged  his  sovereign  to  his 
face,  with  the  personal  guilt  of  those  atrocious  measures 
which  had  entailed  misery  upon  a  numerous  and  inno 
cent  people,  whom  Providence  had  placed  under  his  pro 
tection  ;  and  urging  this  accusation  home  to  his  con 
science  with  an  impetuous  eloquence  that  made  the  crafty 
and  cold-hearted  Ferdinand  tremble  before  him.  Then 
again,  we  find  him,  armed  with  that  mysterious  power 
which  virtuous  enthusiasm  bestows,  mastering  a  stronger 
mind  than  his  own,  and  compelling  the  lofty  and  stern 
Ximenes  to  partake  of  his  zeal.  Then  he  returns  back 
to  his  suffering  people,  and,  amidst  every  form  of  danger 
and  hardship,  administers  in  person  his  own  admirable 
plans  for  their  protection,  conversion,  and  instruction. 

Finding  that  the  impressions  of  his  animated  oratory 
upon  his  countrymen  and  their  rulers  were  constantly 
effaced,  and  their  effects  frustrated  by  the  arts,  intrigues, 
and  falsehoods  of  the  interested,  he  addressed  himself, 
through  the  press,  to  the  whole  Christian  world.  In  one 
of  his  publications,  he  described  the  devastation  of  those 
parts  of  America  which  had  been  subjugated  by  the 
Spaniards,  with  a  copious  and  glowing  eloquence  that 
kindled  the  sympathies  of  all  Europe. 

In  other  works,  he  took  a  larger  range  of  argument, 


14  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

and  appealing  in  turns  to  the  natural  rights  of  man,  as 
pointed  out  by  reason,  and  to  that  revelation  which  de 
clares  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  without  ever 
losing  sight  of  his  main  object,  he  discussed  some  of  the 
most  interesting  questions  of  liberty  and  public  law,  with 
a  courage  and  truth  such  as  modern  Europe  had  never 
yet  seen.*  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  and  one  bearing  ho 
nourable  testimony  to  the  vigour  and  enlargement  of  his 
mind,  that  a  Spanish  ecclesiastic,  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
should  have  maintained  that  the  peculiar  form  of  civil 
polity  in  a  state  ought  to  be  determined  by  the  will  of  the 
people,  upon  the  ground  that,  although  the  sanction  is 
from  above,  the  power  of  the  people  is  the  efficient ;,  and 
their  happiness  the  final  cause  of  all  government.  In 
another  work,  wherein  he  details  at  length  the  most 
probable  means  of  relieving  the  wrongs  and  meliorating 
the  condition  of  the  Indians,  he  declares,  that  as  liberty 
is  the  greatest  of  all  earthly  goods,  and  as  all  nations  have 
an  equal  right  to  its  possession,  the  attempt  to  subjugate 
any  of  them  under  the  pretexts  of  religion,  or  of  political 
expediency,  is  alike  a  crime  against  the  natural  and 
against  the  revealed  law  ;  and  he  adds,  in  words  breath 
ing  more  of  the  ancient  Roman  than  of  the  Spaniard, 
that  he  who  abuses  power  is  unworthy  to  exercise  it,  and 
that  no  obedience  is  due  to  a  tyrant.  It  is  but  too  well 
known  that  these  glorious  labours  in  the  service  of  freedom 
and  humanity  were  in  vain.  Yet  they  were  not  wholly 
fruitless.  Las  Casas  closed  his  long  course  of  indefatiga- 


*  See  the  "Apologie  de  Bart.  Las  Casas,"  of  Gregoire.  The  abstract 
of  Las  Casas'  opinions,  given  by  Dupin,  seems  in  general  to  justify  Gre- 
goire's  eulogy,  though  it  shows  a  greater  mixture  of  the  prejudices  of 
the  times,  with  his  purer  views  of  truth,  than  M.  Gregoire  seems  will 
ing  to  admit. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  15 

ble  philanthropy  in  his  ninety-second  year,  and  his  virtu 
ous  and  venerable  age  was  soothed  by  the  knowledge 
that  some  few  of  his  proposed  plans  had  been  carried  into 
successful  operation,  and  had  contributed,  in  no  small  de 
gree,  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  enslaved  natives.  He 
enjoyed,  moreover,  the  cheering  recollection  of  having 
called  forth  the  testimony  of  the  better  spirits  of  his  own 
nation  against  intolerance  and  persecution,  and  of  having 
kindled  among  them  an  enlightened  zeal  for  the  best  in 
terests  of  mankind — a  sacred  flame,  long  cherished  "as 
a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place,"  but  now  at  last 
kindling  into  brighter  and  broader  radiance,  and,  I  trust, 
destined  to  guide  for  many  an  age  hereafter,  the  nations 
of  Spanish  America  to  public  virtue  and  true  glory. 

Johnson  is  related  to  have  exclaimed,  in  one  of  those 
warm  bursts  of  natural  feeling  which  occasionally  over 
powered  the  narrowness  of  his  political  creed,  "  I  love  the 
University  of  Salamanca  for  their  decision  on  the  law 
fulness  of  the  Spanish  conquests  in  America."  The  de 
cision  Johnson  had  reference  to,  was  that  of  the  two  Uni 
versities  of  Salamanca  and  Alcala,  on  the  public  disputa 
tion,  held  at  Valladolid,  in  1550,  between  Las  Casas  and 
his  ablest  adversary,  the  learned  Sepulveda,  an  acute,  ma 
lignant,  and  bigotted  sophist. 

The  thesis  maintained  by  Sepulveda,  was  the  right  and 
duty  of  making  war  upon  Pagans  and  heretics,  in  order 
to  propagate  the  true  faith.  Las  Casas  refuted  him  upon 
the  most  liberal  principles  of  universal  toleration,  and 
these  doctrines  received  the  solemn  approbation  of  the  two 
universities. 

It  is  one  of  those  melancholy  instances  of  the  retro- 
gradation  of  the  human  mind  which  chill  the  hopes  of 
the  philanthropist,  that  about  thirty  years  ago,  a  mag- 


16  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

nificent  edition  of  all  the  works  of  Sepulveda  was  pub 
lished  by  the  Royal  Academy  of  History  at  Madrid, 
in  the  introduction  to  which,  that  learned  body  did  not 
hesitate  to  give  their  sanction  to  the  doctrines  of  this 
apologist  of  oppression,  and  to  approve  of  what  they 
term  "  the  exercise  of  a  just  and  pious  violence  against 
Pagans  and  heretics." 

I  cannot  leave  the  consideration  of  the  character  of 
Las  Casas,  without  stopping  to  repel  a  charge  which 
has  attached  itself  to  his  fame,  and  to  which  the  popu 
larity  of  the  several  writers  by  whom  it  has  been  made, 
has  given  a  very  wide  circulation.  Far  from  us  be  that 
base  selfishness  which  joys  to  see  any  surpassing  excel 
lence  brought  down  to  its  own  low  level.  Let  us  rather 
delight  to  linger  at  the  good  man's  grave,  and  to  pluck 
away  with  pious  reverence  "  the  weeds  that  have  no 
business  there," 

The  charge  cannot  be  better  stated  than  in  the  words 
of  Dr.  Robertson. 

"  The  impossibility  of  carrying  on  any  improvement 
in  America,  unless  the  Spanish  planteis  could  command 
the  labour  of  the  natives,  was  an  insuperable  objection 
to  the  plan  of  treating  them  as  free  subjects.  In  order 
to  provide  some  remedy  for  this,  Las  Casas  proposed 
to  purchase  a  sufficient  number  of  negroes  from  the 
Portuguese  settlements  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  to 
transport  them  to  America,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
employed  as  slaves  in  working  the  mines  and  cultivating 
the  ground. 

"  Cardinal  Ximenes,  however,  when  solicited  to  en 
courage  this  commerce,  peremptorily  rejected  this  pro 
position,  because  he  perceived  the  iniquity  of  reducing 
one  race  of  men  to  slavery,  while  he  was  consulting 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  17 

about  the  means  of  restoring  liberty  to  another.  But 
Las  Casas,  from  the  inconsistency  natural  to  men  who 
hurry  with  headlong  impetuosity  towards  a  favourite 
pointy  was  incapable  of  making  this  distinction,  While 
he  contended  earnestly  for  the  liberty  of  the  people  born 
in  one  quarter  of  the  globe,  he  laboured  to  enslave  the 
inhabitants  of  another  region ;  and  in  the  warmth  of 
his  zeal  to  save  the  Americans  from  the  yoke,  pronounced 
k  to  be  lawful  and  expedient  to  impose  one  still  heavier 
upon  the  Africans.  Unfortunately  for  the  latter.  Las 
Casas's  plan  was  adopted."* 

This  accusation  has  been  loudly  re-echoed  by  Ray- 
nal,  Marmontel,  De  Pauw,  and  Bryan  Edwards,t  all  of 
them  ingenious  and  popular  writers,  though  of  but  little 
authority  as  regards  strict  historical  accuracy.  From  them 
it  has  passed  without  contradiction  into  many  of  our  re 
cent  biographical  compilations. 

This  charge  bears  such  strong  marks  of  improbability 
upon  the  very  face  of  it,  and  is  in  such  direct  opposition 
to  the  uniform  character  of  Las  Casas,  and  the  whole 
current  of  his  life  and  opinions,  that  it  requires  the  most 
direct  and  positive  evidence  in  its  support,  to  entitle  it  to 
any  credit  with  a  candid  mind.  Now,  it  is  remarkable 
that  the  only  authority  for  this  accusation,  entitled  to 
be  considered  as  a»  original  and  independent  testimony  ? 


*  Robertson's  America,  Vol.  I.  Book  III. 

f  "Las  Casas  auquel  il  manquoit  des  notions  justes  sur  les  droits  de 
1'homme,  mais  qui  s'occupoit  sans  cesse  du  soulagement  de  ses  chers  In- 
diens,"  &c.  says  Raynal,  with  his  usual  flippancy  and  negligence  of 
truth.  Histoire  Philosophique  des  Indes.  Liv.  VIII.  See  also  De 
Pauw,  Recherches  sur  les  Americains,  and  Bryan  Edwards,  who  ad 
mits  the  fact,  but  being  himself  a  eulogist  of  negro  slavery,  imputes,  no 
blame  to  Las  Casas.  Edwards's  West-Indies,  VoUI. 


18  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

is  the  Spanish  historian,  Herrera ;  and  his  language  is 
by  no  means  so  strong  or  particular  as  that  of  Dr.  Ro 
bertson,  who  has,  after  his  usual  manner,  amplified  and 
exaggerated  the  original  statement,  and  spread  over  it 
somewhat  of  that  warm  colouring  which  always  renders 
his  historical  pictures  so  striking  and  splendid  in  their 
general  effect,  and  yet  often  so  incorrect  in  their  most 
important  details.  But  even  this  testimony  of  Herrera, 
when  critically  examined,  will  be  found  to  be  of  little 
weight. 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  go  very  minutely  into  the 
details  of  this  investigation.  Las  Casas  some  few  years 
ago  found  an  ardent  and  able  defender  in  a  congenial 
spirit,  the  excellent  Gregoire — a  man,  who,  like  Las  Casas 
himself,  devoted  a  long  life  to  the  defence  of  liberal  prin 
ciples,  and  to  labours  of  humanity,  who,  like  him,  too, 
was  in  turns  a  mark  for  the  calumnies  of  the  bigot  and  of 
the  sceptic ;  who,  participating  in  all  the  enthusiasm, 
sharing  in  all  the  dangers,  partaking  in  many  of  the 
delusions,  but  unpolluted  by  any  of  the  crimes  of  the 
French  revolution,  with  heroic  moderation  held  on  his 
steady  course  through  all  its  tempestuous  scenes,  at  one 
time  the  champion  of  toleration  against  bigotry,  at  ano 
ther  of  his  religion  against  triumphant  and  persecuting 
atheism  ;  the  defender  of  learning  and  the  arts,  in  the 
hour  of  their  proscription,  and  always  the  friend  of  the 
oppressed — who  will  be  associated  in  History  with  La 
Fayette  as  a  patriot,  and  with  Wilberforce  as  a  philan 
thropist. 

In  an  elaborate  memoir,  read  before  the  Institute  of 
France,*  M.  Gregoire  has  with  great  research,  learning, 

*  Printed  in  the  Memoirs  de  1'Institut  National — Sciences  Morales 
et  Polities,  Tom.  IV, 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE,  19 

and  acuteness,  collected  and  examined  the  whole  evi 
dence  in  any  way  bearing  on  this  subject.  He  first 
proves  most  satisfactorily,  that  the  earliest  transportation 
of  slaves  to  America,  took  place,  according  to  Hargrave, 
(in  the  argument  on  Somerset's  case,)  in  1508,  according 
to  Anderson*  and  Charlevoix,  in  1503,  and  according  to 
Herrera  himself,  in  1498,  that  is  to  say,  certainly  four 
teen,  perhaps  nineteen  years  previous  to  the  date  of  the 
project  imputed  to  Las  Casas. 

He  then  shows,  that  although  the  history  of  those 
times,  and  of  the  affairs  of  the  new  colonies  had  been 
handled  by  numerous  cotemporary  writers,  some  of 
them  friendly,  and  others  very  hostile  to  Las  Casas ; 
and  though  the  controversy  on  the  treatment  of  the  In 
dians  as  slaves  had  called  forth  many  elaborate  argu 
ments  on  both  sides  of  the  question,  no  trace  or  intima 
tion  of  this  charge  is  to  be  found  until  the  publication  of 
Herrera's  history.  This  was  compiled  about  thirty 
years  after  the  death  of  Las  Casas,  and  more  than 
eighty  after  the  date  assigned  to  this  transaction.  This 
negative  testimony,  which  he  deduces  from  a  minute 
examination  of  above  twenty  Spanish  writers  of  that 
age,  and  many  other  more  recent  ones,  is  further 
strengthened  by  the  consideration,  that  the  writings  of 
Las  Casas,  inculcate  throughout,  the  duties  of  hu 
manity  towards  all  men  without  distinction  of  colour  or 
country,  and  it  is  hardly  possible  that  his  numerous  and 
inveterate  adversaries,  and  especially  his  acute  antago 
nist,  Sepulveda,  should  not  have  perceived  and  marked 
so  glaring  an  inconsistency.  Gregoire  farther  states, 


*  Anderson's  History  of  Commerce,  and  Charlevoix,  Histoire  deSt. 
Domingue. 


20  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

that  the  life  of  Las  Casas  has  been  written  in  Spanish, 
French,  and  Italian,  by  seven  different  authors,  (one  of 
them  a  native  of  New  Spain,)  and  they  all  pass  over 
this  charge  as  if  they  never  had  heard  of  it ;  while  the 
five  biographers  of  Cardinal  Ximenes,  as  well  as  the 
several  Spanish,  French,  and  English  authors,  who  have 
written  on  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  slave  trade,  make 
no  mention  whatever  of  Las  Casas's  concern  in  it,  but 
impute  the  project  entirely  either  to  certain  Flemish  lords 
of  the  Spanish  court,  or  to  Chievres.  a  favourite  of  the 
prime  minister. 

Finally,  he   observes  that  Herrera,  though  sensible 
and  ingenious,  is  considered  by  some  of  the  best  Spanish 
writers  on  American  history,  as  a  careless  and  inaccurate 
historian ;  that  he  betrays  evident  marks  of  prejudice 
against  Las  Casas  ;  and  that,  although,  according  to  his 
own  statement,  this  transaction  must  have  taken  place 
long  before  his  personal  recollection,  he  refers  to  no  ori 
ginal  document  or  authority,  in  support  of  his  accusation. 
Whenever  the  historical  inquirer  can  thus  efface  the 
stains  left  by  time  or  malice  upon  the  fame  of  the  wise 
and  good,  he  effects  many  of  the  grandest  objects  of 
history.    He  strips  away  from  vice  the  apology  and  conso 
lation  which  it  finds  in  the  frailty  of  erring  virtue.   He  ex 
cites  the  ingenuous  mind  to  measure  its  ambition  by  a  more 
perfect  standard  of  moral  and  intellectual  worth.     He 
gives  new  strength  to  the  purest  and  most  exalted  senti 
ments  of  our  nature,  by  enabling  us  to  embody,  in  some 
permanent  form  of  active  virtue,  those  magnificent,  but 
undefined  ideas  of  possible  excellence,  wThich  sometimes 
float  before  the  mind  in  its  better  hours,  and  then  vanish 
away  for  ever,  before  the  breath  of  the  world.     If  "  that 
man  is  little  to  be  envied,  whose  patriotism  would  not 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  21 

gain  force  on  the  plain  of  Marathon,  and  whose  piety 
would  not  grow  warmer  among  the  ruins  of  lona,"  sure 
ly  he  too  is  to  be  pitied  whose  heart  swells  with  no  emo 
tion  when  the  mist  of  falsehood  is  thus  rolled  away,  and 
the  form  of  moral  greatness  stands  unveiled  before  him, 
in  all  its  majesty,  towering  far  above  the  highest  eleva 
tion  of  selfish  ambition ;  like  the  pillar  of  Pompey,  rising 
aloft  in  solitary  grandeur  amid  the  waste  and  subject 
plain. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  our  own  more  immediate  history. 
The  settlement  of  New-England  forms  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  colonization.  Never,  until  that  time,  had  such 
high  principles,  and  such  noble  minds,  been  engaged  in 
the  great  work  of  extending  the  bounds  of  the  civilized 
world.  Most  of  the  founders  of  new  states  have  been 
driven  abroad  by  necessity ;  whilst  in  others,  the  spirit  of 
adventure  was  kindled  sometimes  by  restless  ambition, 
or  political  discontent;  sometimes  by  enlightened  views 
of  commercial  profit,  but  oftener  by  wild  dreams  of  sudden 
wealth.  But,  in  the  fathers  of  New-England,  we  behold 
a  body  of  men,  who,  for  the  liberty  of  faith  alone,  reso 
lutely  and  deliberately  exchanged  the  delights  of  home, 
and  the  comforts  of  civilized  life,  for  toil  and  danger,  for 
an  ungenial  climate  and  a  rugged  soil.  They  were 
neither  desperate  adventurers,  nor  ignorant  fanatics ;  on 
the  contrary,  there  is  every  evidence  that  they  generally 
possessed  a  much  higher  degree  of  mental  cultivation, 
than  was  common  at  that  period  among  the  English 
people.  Indeed,  the  austerity  of  the  moral  habits  of  their 
immediate  descendants,  and  the  remarkable  freedom  of 
their  language  from  the  provincial  dialects  of  England, 
afford  ample  evidence  of  the  general  character  of  the  an 
cestors.  They  were  men, 
B 


22  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

: —  who  spake  the  tongue 

That  Shakspeare  spake,  the  faith  and  morals  held 
That  Milton  held.* 

Nay,  even  if  in  the  pride  of  a  vain  philosophy,  we 
should  choose  to  suspect  the  praises  of  this  portion  of  our 
English  ancestry  as  being  but  the  delusions  of  national 
vanity,  and  to  dwell  more  upon  their  faults  and  follies 
than  on  their  virtues,  still  it  is  impossible  to  refuse  some 
share  of  admiration  to  the  talents  and  courage  of  these 
voluntary  exiles,  if  we  regard  them  merely  as  a  bold  and 
honest  portion  of  that  party  in  church  and  state,  which, 
to  borrow  the  coarse  but  strong  language  of  Warburton, 
had  out-fought  the  cavaliers,  out-prayed  the  puritans,  and 
out-witted  the  parliament.  The  period  at  which  they 
lived,  is  very  remarkable  for  having  been  fertile  in  every 
form  of  irregular  greatness,  and  they  partook  largely  of 
the  character  of  their  times.  In  every  great  exertion  of 
genius,  in  that  age,  whether  in  poetry,  in  eloquence,  in 
moral  and  theological  speculation  or  in  active  life,  there 
was  an  incongruous  and  unaccountable  mixture  of  the 
gigantic  and  the  childigh--of  glorious  truth  and  misera 
ble  prejudice.  Pope's  criticism  on  the  poetry  of  Milton, 
may  serve  for  a  universal  description  of  the  talents  of 
that  day, 

Milton's  strong  pinion  now  not  Heaven  can  bound, 
Now  serpent-like,  in  puns,  he  SAveeps  the  ground. 

This  defect  of  taste,  however,  was  the  most  venial  er 
ror  of  the  age ;  the  greatest  one,  and  that  which  casts  a 
dark  shade  over  our  own  early  history,  was  the  spirit  of 
religious  persecution.  In  fact,  the  question  as  to  the  right 
and  duty  of  the  civil  magistrate,  to  restrain  by  punishment 

*  Wordsworth, 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  63 

the  propagation  of  those  opinions,  which  he  conscien 
tiously  believes  to  be  dangerous  to  the  temporal  or  spiritual 
well-being  of  his  people,  clear  as  it  may  appear  to  us  now, 
is  yet,  when  fairly  weighed,  of  all  doubtful  points  of  politi 
cal  speculation,  the  most  difficult  for  mere  reason  to  solve ; 
probably,  because  mere  reason  cannot  furnish  from  its 
own  stores  the  necessary  data  for  the  argument.  These 
must  be  drawn  partly  from  the  suggestions  of  our  o\v.l 
hearts, — and  they,  we  know,  may  be  repressed  by  the 
stern  sense  of  duty,  as  well  as  by  baser  feelings,— but 
principally  from  long  observation  and  experience  of  the 
nature  and  disposition  of  man.  The  reason  of  the  seven 
teenth  century, — and  never  surely  was  human  reason 
more  active  or  vigorous, — had  advanced  no  further  than 
to  assert  and  allow  the  conflict  of  opposite  duties,  that 
of  the  magistrate  to  punish,  and  of  the  martyr  to  suffer. 
The  rest  was  left  to  the  justice  or  mercy  of  heaven.  On 
this  single  point,  the  Doctors  of  Rome,  of  Geneva,  and  of 
Oxford,  were  of  one  opinion.  The  toleration  of  Crom 
well's  reign,  imperfect  as  it  was,  and  comprehending 
neither  the  Catholic,  the  Unitarian,  the  Quaker,  nor  the 
Jew,  was  but  one  of  the  arts  of  political  management,  by 
which  he  raised  himself  to  power,  and  can  scarcely  be 
considered  as  indicating  in  him  or  in  his  party  at 
large,  any  settled  and  clearly  defined  principle  :*  while 
the  limited  freedom  of  worship  allowed  to  the  Hugue 
nots  in  France,  was  a  measure  of  necessity  extorted  and 
defended  by  force. 

About  the  same  time  that  Bossuet,  the  most  illustrious 
champion  of  the  church  of  Rome,  was  engaged  in  main- 

*' A  sufficient  proof  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  treatment  of  John' 
Biddle,  the  learned  Unitarian,  during  the  protectorate.  See  Biographia 
Britannica,  Art.-  Fiddle.- 


*4  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

taining,  with  all  the  force  of  his  overwhelming  eloquence 
and  inexhaustible  ingenuity,  that  the  sovereign  was 
bound  to  use  his  authority  in  extirpating  false  religions 
from  the  state ;  the  Scotch  commissioners,  in  London, 
were  remonstrating,  in  the  name  of  their  national  church, 
against  the  introduction  of  "a  sinful  and  ungodly  tolera 
tion  in  matters  of  religion ;"  *  whilst  the  whole  body  of 
the  English  Presbyterian  clergy,  in  their  official  papers, 
protested  against  the  schemes  of  Cromwell's  party,  and 
solemnly  declared,  "  that  they  detested  and  abhorred  tole 
ration."  "  My  judgment,"  said  Baxter,  a  man  noted  in 
his  day  for  moderation,  "I  have  always  freely  made 
known — I  abhor  unlimited  liberty  or  toleration  of  all." 
"Toleration,"  said  Edwards,  another  distinguished  di 
vine,  "will  make  the  kingdom  a  chaos,  a  Babel,  another 
Amsterdam,  a  Sodom,  an  Egypt,  a  Babylon.  Toleration 
is  the  grand  work  of  the  devil,  his  master-piece  and  chief 
engine  to  uphold  his  tottering  kingdom :  it  is  the  most 
compendious,  ready,  sure  way  to  destroy  all  religion,  lay 
all  waste  and  bring  in  all  evil.  It  is  a  most  transcend 
ent,  catholique  and  fundamental  evil.  As  original  sin  is 
the  fundamental  sin,  having  the  seed  and  spawn  of  all 
sins  in  it,  so  toleration  hath  all  errors  in  it  and  all  evils." 
The  dragonnades  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  bloody  sentences 
of  the  star-chamber,  and  the  savage  persecutions  of  the 
Remonstrants  in  Holland,  and  of  the  Quakers  by  the 
Independents  of  England  and  America,  afforded  terrible 
commentaries  on  these  doctrines.  Now  and  then,  in 
deed,  some  purer  spirits  could  pierce  through  this  gloom, 
and  anticipate  the  lights  of  a  succeeding  age.  Even  in 
that  day,  Fenelon  could  inculcate  upon  his  royal  pupil, 

*Lord  Clarendon — History  of  the  Rebellion,  Book.  XIL 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  45' 

that  power  might  make  men  hypocrites,  but  could  not 
make  them  converts;  and  Jeremy  Taylor  raised  his 
voice  for  "the  liberty  of  prophesying,"  and  eloquently 
testified  against  the  "  unreasonableness  of  prescribing  to 
other  men's  faith,  and  the  iniquity  of  persecuting  different 
opinions." 

Yet  these  were  but  solitary  and  unheeded  examples, 
and  the  voices  of  these  sons  of  peace  were  drowned 
amidst  the  clash  of  arms  and  the  clamours  of  contro 
versy. 

The  glory  of  having  first  set  a'n  example  of  a  practical 
and  extensive  system  of  religious  freedom,  wras  reserved 
for  America ;  and  the  first  legislator  who  fully  recognised 
the  rights  of  conscience,  was  Roger  Williams,  a  name 
less  illustrious  than  it  deserves  to  be ;  for  although  his 
eccentricities  of  conduct  and  opinion,  may  sometimes  pro 
voke  a  smile,  he  was  a  man  of  genius  and  of  virtue,  of 
admirable  firmness,  courage,  and  disinterestness,  and  of 
unbounded  benevolence. 

He  was  a  native  of  Wales,  and  emigrated  to  New- 
England,  in  1630.  He  was  then  a  young  man  of  aus 
tere  life  and  popular  manners,  full  of  reading,  skilled  in 
controversy,  and  gifted  with  a  rapid,  copious,,  and  vehe 
ment  eloquence.  The  writers  of  those  days  represent 
him  as  being  full  of  turbulent  and  singular  opinions,  "and 
the  whole  country,"  saith  the  quaint  Cotton  Mather, 
"was  soon  like  to  be  set  on  fire  by  the  rapid  motion  of  a 
windmill  in  the  head  of  this  one  man."*  The  heresy 
which  appeared  most  grievous  to  his  brethren,  was  his 
zeal  for  unqualified  religious  liberty.  In  the  warmth  of 

*  Cotton  Mather — Magnalia,  Book  VII.  in  the  chapter,  entitled 
<f  Little  Foxes,  or  the  spirit  of  Rigid  Separation  in  one  remarkable  zea- 
let,"  &c. 

B* 


26  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE: 

his  charity,  he  contended  for  "  freedom  of  conscience, 
even  to  Papists  and  Arminians,  with  security  of  civil 
peace  to  all,"  a  doctrine  that  filled  the  Massachusetts  cler 
gy  with  horror  and  alarm.  "  He  violently  urged,"  says 
Cotton  Mather,  "that  the  civil  magistrate  might  not 
punish  breaches  of  the  first  table  of  the  commandments, 
which  utterly  took  away  from  the  authority  all  capacity 
to  prevent  the  land  which  they  had  purchased  on  pur 
pose  for  a  recess  from  such  things,  from  becoming  such  a 
sink  of  abominations  as  would  have  been  the  reproach 
and  ruin  of  Christianity  in  these  parts  of  the  world." 

In  addition  to  these  "  most  disturbant  and  offensive 
doctrines,"  Mather  charges  him  with  preaching  against 
the  Royal  charter  of  the  colony,  "on  an  insignificant 
pretence  of  wrong  therein  done  unto  the  Indians."  To 
his  fervent  zeal  for  liberty  of  opinion,  this  singular  man 
united  an  equal  degree  of  tenacity  to  every  article  of  his 
own  narrow  creed.  He  objected  to  the  custom  of  return 
ing  thanks  after  meat,  as,  in  some  manner  or  other,  in 
volving  a  corruption  of  primitive  and  pure  worship  |  he 
refused  to  join  any  of  the  churches  in  Boston,  unless  they 
would  first  make  a  public  and  solemn  declaration  of  their 
repentance  for  having  formerly  communed  with  the 
church  of  England;  and  when  his  doctrines  of  religious 
liberty  were  condemned  by  the  clergy,  he  wrote  to  his 
own  church  at  Salem,  "  that  if  they  would  not  separate 
as  well  from  the  churches  of  New-England  as  of  Old,  he 
would  separate  from  them." 

All  his  peculiar  opinions,  whether  true  or  erroneous, 
were  alike  offensive  to  his  puritan  brethren,  and  contro 
versy  soon  waxed  warm.  Some  logicians,  more  tolerant 
or  politic  than  the  rest,  attempted  to  reconcile  the  dispu 
tants  by  a  whimsical,  and  not  very  intelligible  sophism. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  27 

They  approved  not,  said  they,  of  persecuting  men  for 
conscience'  sake,  but  solely  of  correcting  them  for  sinning 
against  conscience;  and  so  not  persecuting,  but  punish 
ing  heretics.  Williams  was  not  a  man  who  could  be 
imposed  upon  by  words,  or  intimidated  by  threats;  and 
he  accordingly  persevered  in  inculcating  his  doctrines 
publicly  and  vehemently.  The  clergy,  after  having  en 
deavoured  in  vain  to  shake  him  by  argument  and  remon 
strance,  at  last  determined  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  civil 
authority;  and  the  General  Court,  after  due  consideration 
of  the  case,  passed  sentence  of  banishment  upon  him,  or, 
as  they  phrased  it,  "ordered  his  removal  out  of  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  the  court."  Some  of  the  men  in  power  had  de 
termined  that  he  should  be  sent  to  England;  but,  when 
they  sent  to  take  him,  they  found  that,  with  his  usual 
spirit  of  resolute  independence,  he  had  already  departed, 
no  one  knew  whither,  accompanied  by  a  few  of  his  peo 
ple,  who,  to  use  their  own  language,  had  gone  with  their 
beloved  pastor  "  to  seek  their  providences."  After  some 
wanderings  he  pitched  his  tent  at  a  place,  to  which  he 
gave  the  name  of  Providence,  and  there  became  the 
founder  arid  legislator  of  the  colony  of  Rhode-Island. 
There  he  continued  to  rule,  sometimes  as  the  governor, 
and  always  as  the  guide  and  father  of  the  settlement,  for 
forty-eight  years,  employing  himself  in  acts  of  kindness 
to  his  former  enemies,  affording  relief  to  the  distressed, 
and  offering  an  asylum  to  the  persecuted.  The  govern 
ment  of  his  colony  was  formed  on  his  favourite  principle, 
that  in  matters  of  faith  and  worship,  every  citizen  should 
walk  according  to  the  light  of  his  own  conscience,  with 
out  restraint  or  interference  from  the  civil  magistrate. 
During  a  visit  which  Williams  made  to  England,  in 
1643,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  a  colonial  charter,  he 


28  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

published  a  formal  and  laboured  vindication  of  this  doc 
trine,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Bloody  Tenent,  or  a  Dia 
logue  between  Truth  and  Peace."  In  this  work,  written 
with  his  usual  boldness  and  decision,  he  anticipated  most 
of  the  arguments,  which,  fifty  years  after,  attracted  so 
much  attention,  when  they  were  brought  forward  by 
Locke.  His  own  conduct  in  power,  was  in  perfect  ac 
cordance  with  his  speculative  opinions;  and  when,  in  his 
old  age,  the  order  of  his  little  community  was  disturbed 
by  an  irruption  of  Quaker  preachers,  he  combated  them 
only  in  pamphlets  and  public  disputations,  and  contented 
himself  with  overwhelming  their  doctrines  with  a  torrent 
of  learning,  sarcasms,  syllogisms,  and  puns.* 

It  should  also  be  remembered,  to  the  honour  of  Roger 
Williams,  that  no  one  of  the  early  colonists,  without  ex 
cepting  William  Penn  himself,  equalled  him  in  justice 
*and  benevolence  towards  the  Indians.  He  laboured  in 
cessantly,  and  with  much  success,  to  enlighten  and  con 
ciliate  them,  and  by  this  means  acquired  a  personal  influ 
ence  among  them,  which  he  had  frequently  the  enviable 
satisfaction  of  exerting  in  behalf  of  those  who  had  banish 
ed  him.  It  is  not  the  least  remarkable  or  characteristic 
incident  of  his  varied  life,  that  within  one  year  after  his 
exile,  and  while  he  was  yet  hot  with  controversy,  and  in 
dignant  at  his  wrongs,  his  first  interference  with  the  af 
fairs  of  his  former  colony  was  to  protect  its  frontier  settle 
ments  from  an  Indian  massacre.  From  that  time  forward, 
though  he  was  never  permitted  to  return  to  Massachu 
setts,  he  was  frequently  employed  by  the  government  of 
that  province  in  negotiations  with  the  Indians,  and  on 
other  business  of  the  highest  importance.  Even  Cotton 

*  The  title  of  one  of  his  books  against  George  Fox,  and  his  follower, 
Burrowes,  is  "  The  Fox  digged  out  of -his  Burrows." 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  29 

Mather,  in  spite  of  his  steadfast  abhorrence  of  Williams's 
heresy,  seems  to  have  been  touched  with  the  magnani 
mity  and  kindness  of  the  man ;  and  after  having  stigma 
tized  him  as  "  the  infamous  Korah  of  New-England," 
he  confesses,  a  little  reluctantly,  that  "  for  the  forty  years 
after  his  exile,  he  acquitted  himself  so  laudably,  that 
many  judicious  people  judged  him  to  have  had  the  root 
of  the  matter  in  him,  during  the  long  winter  of  his  re 
tirement."* 

At  the  very  time  that  the  puritan  Roger  Williams  was 
thus  inculcating  this  humane  and  wise  doctrine  in  the 
eastern  colonies,  a  Roman  Catholic  nobleman,  George 
Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore,  was  engaged  in  obtaining  a 
charter  and  enacting  a  code  of  laws  for  Maryland,  on  the 
same  liberal  principles. 

Lord  Baltimore  had  neither  the  talents  nor  the  eccen 
tricities  of  Roger  Williams,  but  he  was  a  man  of  strong 
sense  and  great  worth.  He  had  passed  with  reputation 
through  several  offices  of  high  political  trust  and  import 
ance,  under  James  I.,  but  in  1624  he  resigned  all  his 
employments  on  becoming  a  convert  to  the  Roman  Ca 
tholic  faith.  He  then  projected  a  colony  at  Newfound 
land  ;  but  after  visiting  his  settlement  twice,  bestowing 
great  expense  and  labour  upon  it,  and  once  in  person 
rescuing  it  from  a  French  invasion,  despairing  of  success, 
he  abandoned  his  proprietary  rights  there,  and  procured 
a  patent  for  Maryland.  After  he  had  visited  and  explored 
the  country,  he  died,  while  he  was  engaged  in  making 

*  Mather — Magnalia  Americana,  Book  VII.  cap.  2.  Collections  of 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  VI.  245.  VII.  3.  VIII.  2.  IX.  23.  X. 
15,  &c.  &c.  Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  III.  577.  Chalmer's  Poli 
tical  Annals,  p.  269.  Gtiiarto  edit.  Dr.  Trumbull  (Hist.  U.  S.  vol.  I.  p. 
105,)  speaks  of  Williams  with  cold  praise,  though  he  calls  him  "a  gen 
tleman  of  benevolence." 


30 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 


the  necessary  preparatory  arrangements  for  his 
taking,  and  before  the  charter  had  passed  the  forms  of 
office;  so  that  there  is  scarce  any  historical  record  of  his 
share  in  the  colonial  administration  of  Maryland.  But 
the  little  that  tradition  has  preserved  respecting  him, 
speaks  volumes  in  his  praise.  We  know  that  he  dis- 
pla)red  the  most  perfect  good  faith  in  all  his  transactions 
with  the  natives,  and  that  it  was  to  him  that  Maryland 
was  indebted  for  such  a  liberal  code  of  religious  equality > 
that  the  province  soon  became  the  refuge,  not  only  of  the 
Catholics  who  fled  from  Great  Britain,  but  of  the  Puritans 
who  were  driven  from  Virginia,  arid  of  the  Quakers  ex 
iled  from  New-England.* 

His  son,  the  second  Lord  Baltimore,  deserves  also  to 
be  named  with  honour,  as  having  inherited  the  enter 
prise  and  the  tolerant  spirit  of  his  father. 

These  admirable  examples  remained  without  imitation 
for  nearly  half  a  century,  until  1682,  when  William 
Penn  repeated  the  same  experiment  on  a  much  greater 
scale,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  government  of  Penn 
sylvania,  with  this  "  grand  fundamental,"  as  he  termed 
it,  "  that  every  person  should  enjoy  the  free  profession  of 
his  faith,  and  exercise  of  worship,  in  such  way  as  he 
should  in  his  conscience  believe  most  acceptable." 

The  resemblance  of  character  between  Penn  and  KXH 
ger  Williams,  is  striking.  Penn,  like  Williams,  was  ei> 
thusiastic,  without  being  bigoted;  he  had  the  same  be 
nevolence,  the  same  scorn  of  intellectual  slavery,  the  same 
love  of  controversy,  and,  above  all,  the  same  habitual 
inflexibility  of  purpose  and  opinion.  But  he  had  mixed 
more  widely  in  the  world,  had  more  experience,  and  more 

*  Chalmer's  Political  Annals,  p.  200,  4to.  London.  Biographia  Eli*- 
tannica,  article  "CalrerU"  Marshall's  Washington,  I.  80 — 83. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  31 

knowledge  of  character,  a  more  bustling  activity  of  dis 
position,  greater  skill  in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  and,  per 
haps,  a  little  more  of  worldly  ambition,  as  well  as  much 
more  of  worldly  wisdom.  He  appeared,  too,  on  a  more 
magnificent  theatre  of  action,  and  has  left  the  impress  of 
his  own  peculiar  character  very  deeply  stamped  upon  the 
opinions  and  institutions  of  England  and  America. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  peculiarities  of  his  mind, 
was  that  singular  inflexibility  of  which  I  have  spoken ; 
and  he  was  in  the  habit  of  applying  it  indiscriminately  to 
the  noblest  and  to  the  most  paltry  uses.  His  range  of 
knowledge  was  extensive:  he  had  looked,  with  an  observ 
ant  eye,  upon  many  forms  of  character  and  modes  of 
life,  and  he  deemed  k  to  be  his  duty  to  declare  his  settled 
opinion  upon  every  subject  that  fell  in  his  way,  and  to 
take  a  part  in  every  controversy  as  soon  as  it  arose. 

It  mattered  nothing,  whether  the  subject  was  of  little 
importance  or  of  great,  he  was  always  stiff  in  his  opinions, 
bold  in  his  avowal  of  them,  ready  and  copious  in  expound 
ing  them,  and  ingenious  in  their  defence.  Yet,  in  spite 
of  these  foibles,  every  ludicrous  association  is  repelled  from 
his  character,  by  the  admiration  he  excites  when  we  be 
hold  him  inculcating  the  purest  doctrines  of  religion  with 
the  fervour  of  an  apostle,  and  defending  the  dearest  inte 
rests  of  his  country  and  the  most  sacred  rights  of  man 
with  an  ability,  a  courage,  and  a  sagacity,  which  would 
have  done  honour  to  Hampden  or  Algernon  Sidney. 

He  lived  in  an  age  of  controversy  and  intolerance,  both 
religious  and  political;  and  for  a  considerable  part  of  his 
life,  he  published  a  polemical  tract  every  month,  and  was 
regularly  thrown  into  prison  at  least  once  a  year.  But 
neither  tyranny  nor  the  continual  irritation  of  controversy , 
could  change  his  steady  character.  Prosperous  or  un- 


32  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

prosperous,  in  peace  or  in  controversy,  in  business  and  in 
retirement,  he  was  still  the  same ;  kind,  pure,  patient, 
laborious,  fearless,  zealous,  pious.  If  his  polemic  ardour 
now  and  then  hurried  him  a  little  beyond  the  bounds  of 
his  habitual  meekness,  still  his  violence  was  always  con 
fined  to  a  few  rough  words ;  and  it  is  even  worthy  of 
remark,  that  this  occasional  intemperance  of  expression 
seldom  extended  much  beyond  his  title-page  ;*  and  as  soon 
as  that  slight  effervescence  was  over,  he  quietly  returned 
to  his  accustomed  calm,  clear,  and  quaint  simplicity  of 
style. 

It  was  after  a  long  and  rigid  discipline  of  adversity  and 
oppression,  when  his  youthful  presumption  had  subsided, 
and  his  enthusiastic  zeal  had  ripened  into  a  wise  and 
practical  benevolence,  that  Penn  became  the  founder  of 
that  commonwealth  which  so  gloriously  perpetuates  his 
name,  his  wisdom,  and  his  virtues — a  more  magnificent 
and  lasting  monument  than  conqueror  or  despot  ever 
reared. 

He  arrived  in  Pennsylvania,  in  October,  1682.  As 
he  was  wont,  according  to  the  taste  of  the  age  and  of  his 
sect,  to  allegorize  natural  occurrences,  he  might  have 
found,  in  the  soft  serenity  of  the  season  when  he  land 
ed,  an  apt  emblem  of  those  happy  and  useful  days  he 
was  to  pass  in  America.  The  rest  of  his  life,  like  the 
other  parts  of  the  year  in  this  climate,  was  vexed  with 
many  fierce  and  sudden  varieties  of  change ;  but  the  pe 
riod  of  his  administration  in  America,  was  destined  to  be, 
like  the  American  autumn,  mild,  calm,  bright,  and 
abounding  in  rich  fruits. 

*  As  for  example,  "  A  brief  Reply  to  a  mere  Rhapsody  of  Lies,  Folly, 
and  Slander,"  &c.  "  An  Answer  to  a  False  and  Foolish  Libel,"  &c. 
are  the  titles  of  some  of  his  tracts. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE,  33 

Here,  his  genius  seemed  to  expand,  as  if  to  fit  itself  for 
a  grander  scene  of  action ;  while  his  benevolence  grew 
warmer  amid  "  the  sweet  quiet  of  these  parts,"  to  use  his 
own  beautiful  language,  "  freed  from  the  troublesome 
and  anxious  solicitations,  hurries,  and  perplexities  of  wo- 
ful  Europe."  In  all  outward  things  he  was  well  satisfied, 
and  he  had  no  desire  left,  but  that  of  doing'good.  "  The 
land,"  said  he,  "  is  rich,  the  air  clear  and  sweet,  the  springs 
plentiful,  and  provisions  good  and  easy  to  come  at:  in 
fine,  here  is  what  an  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  would 
be  well  contented  with ;  and  service  enough  for  God,  for 
the  fields  are  here  white  for  harvest."* 

The  history  of  man  does  not  furnish  any  more  inte 
resting  scene,  nor  one  calling  up  finer  associations  or 
more  generous  sympathies,  than  the  first  conference  of 
William  Perm  and  his  followers  with  the  savage  chiefs ; 
when,  to  recur  again  to  his  own  inimitable  words,  "  they 
met  on  the  broad  pathway  of  good  faith  and  good  will, 
so  that  no  advantage  was  taken  on  either  side,  but  all 
was  openness,  brotherhood,  and  love." 

Montesquieu,  with  his  usual  brilliant  and  ambitious 
originality,  has  styled  Penn  the  modern  Lycurgus.  Pa 
radoxical  as  this  strange  association  of  names  may  at 
first  appear,  there  is  one  marked  point  of  resemblance 
between  the  Spartan  and  the  Pennsylvanian  legislator; 
widely  as  they  differed  in  the  character  of  their  institu 
tions,  and  the  ultimate  ends  of  their  ambition. 

Penn  legislated  for  peace,  as  Lycurgus  did  for  war;  but 
it  is  the  peculiar  glory  of  both,  to  have  possessed  a  self-ba 
lanced  and  confident  energy  of  mind,  enabling  them  to  dis 
regard  all  considerations  of  temporary  expediency  and  pri- 


*  William  Perm's  Letters. 
C 


34  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

vate  interest,  and  to  make  every  part  of  their  system 
harmonize  in  perfect  unison  with  those  leading  princi 
ples  which  were  to  pervade,  animate,  and  govern  every 
portion  of  the  state. 

Never  was  there  undertaken  a  more  sublime  political 
enterprise  than  that  of  the  founder  of  Pennsylvania. 
Never  was  there  a  legislation  more  boldly  marked  with 
that  unity  of  intention  which  is  the  most  peculiar  and 
majestic  feature  of  all  original  conception.  His  system  of 
virtuous  politics  was  reared  upon  benevolence,  justice, 
and  liberty.  With  these  objects  he  began,  and  with  these 
he  ended.  In  an  age  when,  with  few  exceptions,  the 
sound  principles  of  civil  liberty  were  as  little  understood 
by  those  who  clamoured  for  freedom  as  by  those  who 
defended  the  doctrines  of  arbitrary  power,  William  Penn 
began  his  system  of  virtuous  politics,  by  proclaiming  to 
his  people,  in  words  of  noble  dignity  and  simplicity,  "that 
the  great  end  of  government  was  to  support  power  in  re 
verence  with  the  people,  and  to  secure  the  people  from 
the  abuse  of  power,  that  they  may  be  free  by  their  just 
obedience,  and  the  magistrates  honourable  for  their  just 
administration — for  Liberty  without  obedience  is  confu 
sion,  and  Obedience  without  liberty  is  slavery."* 

With  such  views,  thus  liberal  and  temperate,  his  first 
care  was  to  divest  himself  of  the  almost  arbitrary  power 
he  had  been  intrusted  with,  and  to  establish  a  form  of 
government  on  the  broadest  plan  of  republican  represen 
tation.  At  the  same  time,  well  judging  "  that  govern 
ments  rather  depend  upon  men,  than  men  upon  govern 
ments,"  he  rested  his  sole  reliance  upon  public  morals 

*  Preamble  to  Perm's  "Frame  of  Government,"  in  Marshall's  Life 
of  Washington,  Vol.  I.  Appendix,  note  4.  The  whole  is  curious,  and 
much  of  it  admirable. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  35 

and  education  for  the  preservation  of  public  liberty. 
"  For,"  saith  he,  "  that  which  makes  a  good  government 
must  keep  it,  namely,  men  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  quali 
ties,  which,  because  they  descend  not  with  natural  inhe 
ritance,  must  be  carefully  propagated  by  a  virtuous  edu 
cation  of  youth." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  recall  to  the  recollection  of  any 
American,  who  is  at  all  conversant  with  the  history  of 
his  own  country,  the  gentleness  and  tolerance  of  Penn's 
government ;  his  love  of  peace  and  its  arts  ;  the  kindness 
with  which  he  watched  over  the  welfare,  and  laboured 
for  the  instruction,  of  the  African  race ;  his  encourage 
ment  of  useful  industry  and  general  education  ;  the  mild 
wisdom  of  his  criminal  code ;  and,  above  all,  his  effort  to 
improve  the  administration  of  justice,  by  combining  the 
reformation  of  the  offender  with  the  punishment  of  the 
offence — a  grand  and  original  attempt,  which,  had  he  no 
other  claim  to  our  gratitude,  would  alone  entitle  him  to 
a  most  honourable  place  among  the  benefactors  of  the 
world. 

It  is  true,  that  some  of  Penn's  plans  of  peaceful  legis 
lation,  have  been  found  inapplicable  to  the  actual  state 
and  condition  of  mankind.  But  his  very  failures  were 
glorious,  for  they  arose  chiefly  from  a  too  sanguine  expec 
tation  of  the  mental  and  moral  improvement  of  the  hu 
man  race,  and  too  hasty  anticipations  of  universal  holi 
ness  and  universal  peace:  an  illusion  so  fair  and  lovely, 
and  so  nearly  allied  to  truth,  that  it  sheds  lustre  over  every 
error  with  which  it  may  be  connected,  and  can  even  lend 
momentary  dignity  and  interest  to  the  wildest  specula 
tions  of  Godwin  and  Condorcet. 

The  great  name  of  John  Locke,  is  associated  with  that 
of  William  Penn,  by  a  double  tie ;  by  his  celebrated  con- 


36  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

stitution  for  the  Carolinas,  which  enrols  him  among  the 
earliest  legislators  of  America,  and  by  one  of  those  anec 
dotes  of  private  friendship  and  magnanimity,  upon  which 
the  mind  gladly  reposes,  after  wandering  among  the  cold 
and  dreary  generalities  of  history. 

During  the  short  period  of  Penn's  influence  at  the  court 
of  James  II..  he  obtained  from  the  king  the  promise  of  a 
pardon  for  Locke,  who  had  fled  to  Holland  from  the  per 
secution  of  the  dominant  party.  Locke,  though  grateful 
to  Penn  for  this  unsolicited  kindness,  replied  with  a  firm 
ness  worthy  of  the  man  who  was  destined  to  become  the 
most  formidable  adversary  of  tyranny  in  all  its  shapes, 
"that  he  could  not  accept  a  pardon,  when  he  had  not  been 
guilty  of  any  crime."  Three  years  after  this  occurrence, 
the  Stuarts  were  driven  from  the  throne  of  England; 
Locke  then  returned  in  triumph.  At  the  same  time,  the 
champions  of  English  liberty,  to  serve  some  party  object, 
proclaimed  Penn  a  traitor  without  the  slightest  ground; 
and  all  his  rights  as  an  Englishman,  and  his  chartered 
privileges,  were  shamelessly  violated  by  the  very  states 
men  who  had  drafted  the  Act  of  Toleration  and  the  Bill 
of  Rights.  In  this  season  of  distress  and  desertion,  Penn 
was  unexpectedly  gratified  by  the  grateful  remembrance 
of  Locke,  who  now,  in  his  turn,  interceded  to  procure  a 
pardon  from  the  new  sovereign.  In  the  pride  of  slan 
dered  innocence,  Penn  answered,  as  Locke  had  formerly 
done,  "that  he  had  never  been  guilty  of  any  crime,  and 
could  not,  therefore,  rest  satisfied  with  a  mode  of  libera 
tion  which  would  ever  appear  as  a  standing  monument 
of  his  guilt." 

The  genius  of  Locke  has  been  described  by  Dr.  Watts, 
with  equal  elegance  and  truth,  as  being  "  wide  as  the 
sea,  calm  as  the  night,  bright  as  thje  day:"  still  his  mind 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  37 

appears  to  have  been  deficient  in  that  practical  sagacity 
which  so  happily  tempered  the  enthusiasm  of  William 
Penn.  The  code  of  government  and  laws  which  Locke 
formed  for  the  Carolinas,  contained  many  excellent  pro 
visions  ;  but  it  was  embarrassed  by  numerous  and  dis 
cordant  subdivisions  of  power,  was  perplexed  by  some 
impracticable  refinements  in  the  administration  of  justice, 
and  was,  in  all  respects,  unnecessarily  artificial  and  com 
plicated.*  Nevertheless,  it  is,  I  think,  a  legitimate  subject 
of  national  pride  that  we  can  thus  number  this  virtuous 
and  profound  philosopher  among  those  original  legislators 
of  this  country,  who  gave  to  our  political  character  its  first 
impulse  and  direction. 

The  character  and  exploits  of  the  founder  of  Georgia, 
form  a  dazzling  contrast  to  the  calm  virtues  of  this  great 
man.  The  life  of  General  Oglethorpe  would  require  but 
little  embellishment  to  make  it  a  tale  of  romance.  It  was 
full  of  variety,  adventure,  and  achievement.  His  ruling 
passions  were  the  love  of  glory,  of  his  country,  and  of 
mankind,  and  these  were  so  blended  together  in  his  mind 
that  they  formed  but  one  principle  of  action.  He  was  a 
hero,  a  statesman,  an  orator,  the  patron  of  letters,  the 
chosen  friend  of  men  of  genius,  and  the  theme  of  praise 
for  great  poets. 

In  his  youth,  after  having  been  the  confidential  aid-de 
camp  of  the  Earl  of  Peterborough,  whom  he  resembled 
in  his  restless  activity  of  mind  and  body,  he  early  attracted 
the  notice  of  the  great  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and  after 
wards  served  with  distinguished  reputation  under  Prince 
Eugene,  in  Germany,  Hungary,  and  Turkey.  From 

*  Marshall,  L  190.  Trumbull's  History  of  the  U.  S.  I.  206,  and  the 
Constitution  itself  in  Locke's  Works,  voL  X.  p.  175. 8vo.  edition,  Lon 
don,  1801. 


38  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

his  boyhood  he  uniformly  enjoyed  the  friendship  and 
confidence  of  his  gallant  and  eloquent  countryman,  John, 
Duke  of  Argyle,*  who,  in  an  animated  speech  in  parlia 
ment,  bore  splendid  testimony  to  his  military  talents,  his 
natural  generosity,  his  contempt  for  danger,  and  his  de 
votion  to  the  public  weal.t 

Passing  from  the  camp  to  the  senate,  he  soon  became 
conspicuous  for  his  manly  independence,  and  still  more 
for  the  ardour  and  purity  of  his  benevolence.  Anticipating 
the  labours  of  Howard,  he  plunged  into  the  dark  and 
pestilential  dungeons  where  prisoners  for  debt  in  Eng 
land,  were  at  that  time  confined,  dragged  to  light  the  most 
atrocious  abuses,  restored  to  freedom  multitudes  who  had 
long  suffered  under  legal  oppression,  and  obtained  public 
and  exemplary  punishment  of  the  men  who  had  been 
guilty  of  these  outrages  against  justice  and  humanity. 
Soon  after  this,  a  colony  was  projected,  which,  without 
any  prospect  of  profit  or  remuneration  to  those  who  di 
rected  it,  had  in  view  the  double  object  of  relieving  Eng 
land  from  some  portion  of  the  daily  increasing  burden  of 
her  pauperism,  and  of  opening  an  avenue  of  useful  and 
independent  industry  to  those  who  had  fallen  into  unme 
rited  misfortune.  General  Oglethorpe  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  this  enterprise,  and  he  entered  upon  it  with  his 
characteristic  ardour.  Animated  by  the  hope  of  gaining 
glory,  and  of  doing  good,  he  cheerfully  expended  a  large 
portion  of  his  private  fortune,  and  encountered  every  va 
riety  of  fatigue  and  danger. 

It  was  in  1732,  immediately  after  making  a  spirited 
and  patriotic  effort  in  parliament  to  restore  a  constitution- 

*  "  Argyle,  the  state's  whole  thunder  born  to  wield, 
And  shake  alike  the  senate  and  the  field." — Pope. 

f  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  XI.  p.  400. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  39 

al  militia ,  and  to  abolish  arbitrary  impressment  for  the 
sea-service,  that  he  left  England  to  become  the  founder 
of  the  colony  of  Georgia.  The  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade  has  also  long  engaged  his  attention,  and,  under  his 
auspices  this  infant  colony  set  the  example  of  a  legal  pro 
hibition  of  this  traffic  in  the  blood  of  man. 

Various  untoward  circumstances  conspired  to  check  the 
growth  of  the  new  settlement,  and  to  frustrate  the  innu 
merable  plans  of  agricultural*  and  political  improvement 
constantly  suggested  by  the  busy  and  fertile  mind  of  the 
governor ;  and,  in  a  few  years,  these  labours  were  com 
pletely  interrupted  by  the  alarm  of  a  Spanish  and  Indian 
war.  The  benign  legislator  and  magistrate,  who  had  ri 
valled  Penn  in  the  arts  of  peace  and  in  acts  of  mercy, 
then  resumed,  at  once,  the  habits  of  his  youth,  and  ap 
proved  himself  the  hardy,  daring,  and  adventurous  sol 
dier.  By  his  unwearied  activity,  and  the  example  of  his 
personal  courage,  not  less  than  by  his  military  skill  and 
enterprise,  in  the  laborious  Southern  campaigns  of  1740 
and  1742,  he  repelled  the  inroads  of  a  far  superior  ene 
my,  who  threatened  the  subjugation  of  Georgia  and  the 
devastation  of  the  Carolinas.t 


*  One  of  these  was  the  introduction  of  the  olive  into  the  southern 
colonies. 

|  "In  the  month  of  June,  (1742,)  the  new  colony  of  Georgia  was 
invaded  by  an  armament  from  St.  Augustine,  commanded  by  Don  Ma 
nuel  de  Monteano,  governor  of  that  fortress.  It  consisted  of  six-and- 
thirty  ships,  from  which  four  thousand  men  were  landed  at  St.  Simon's, 
and  began  their  march  for  Frederica.  General  Oglethorpe,  with  a 
handful  of  men,  took  such  wise  precautions  for  opposing  their  progress, 
and  harassed  them  in  their  march  with  such  activity  and  resolution, 
that,  after  two  of  their  detachments  had  been  defeated,  they  retired  to 
their  ships,  and  totally  abandoned  their  enterprise."  Smollet's  History 
of  England,  Reign  of  George  II.  The  history  of  this  campaign  and  of 
the  preceding  one  of  1742,  is  given  in  a  much  more  detailed  manner  in 


40  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

It  was  this  fine  combination  of  chivalry  and  philan 
thropy  in  the  character  of  General  Oglethorpe,  graced  as 
it  was  by  a  variety  of  accomplishments  and  the  love  of 
letters,  that  excited  the  warm  admiration  of  Johnson, 
who  intended  to  become  his  biographer — that  called  forth 
the  eulogy  of  Pope,  in  those  well-known  lines, 

And  driven  by  strong  benevolence  of  soul, 
Shall  fly,  like  Oglethorpe,  from  pole  to  pole ; 

And  that  induced  Thomson  to  celebrate  the  praises  of 
the  founder  of  Savannah,  among  those  of  the  most 
brilliant  heroes  and  patriots  of  ancient  or  of  English  his 
tory: 

Lo!  swarming  southward  on  rejoicing  suns 
Gay  colonies  extend ;  the  calm  retreat 
Of  undeserved  distress,  the  better  home 
Of  those  whom  bigots  chase  from  foreign  lands. 
Not  built  on  Rapine,  Servitude,  and  Wo, 
And  in  their  turn  some  petty  tyrant's  prey ; 
But  bound  by  social  freedom,  firm  they  rise, 
Such  as  of  late  an  OGLETHORPE  has  formed, 
And  crowding  round,  the  pleased  Savannah  sees.* 

General  Oglethorpe  administered  the  affairs  of  the  co 
lony  for  about  eleven  years.  He  afterwards  passed, 
"  without  fear  and  without  reproach,"  through  many  al 
ternations  of  fortune,  both  in  public  and  private  life,  con 
stantly  emulating  Howard  in  the  zeal  and  extent  of  his 
charity,  and  sustaining  a  character  as  a  soldier  and  a 
gentleman,  such  as  Sir  Philip  Sidney  or  Lord  Falkland 
might  have  envied.  His  habitual  temperance  and  acti 
vity  preserved  his  health  aud  faculties  to  extreme  old  age.t 

M'Call's  History  of  Georgia,  vol.  I.  and  in  Dr.  Trumbull's  History  of 
the  United  States,  vol.  I.  chap.  8. 

*  Thomson's  Liberty,  Part  V. 

t  There  is  a  considerable  variance  in  the  accounts  of  General  Ogle- 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  41 

He  died  in  1785,  affording  the  first  example  in  modern 
times,  of  the  founder  of  a  colony  who  has  lived  to  see  that 
colony  recognized  by  the  world  as  a  sovereign  and  inde 
pendent  state. 

The  latest  distinct  traces  which  are  to  be  found  of  Ge 
neral  Oglethorpe,  are  in  the  amusing  volumes  of  Boswell, 
who  has  incidentally  preserved  many  fragments  of  his 
cheerful  and  instructive  conversation ;  and  describes  him 
as  living  in  London,  during  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  in 
a  style  of  elegant  hospitality,  associating  familiarly  with 
Johnson,  Goldsmith,  and  Reynolds ;  an  evening  worthy 
of  so  long  and  so  bright  a  day.* 

It  was  not  until  a  late  period  of  our  colonial  history, 
that  the  British  Government  was  awakened  to  a  sense  of 
our  growing  importance.  With  but  very  few  excep 
tions  all  those  who  influenced  and  directed  the  public 
mind  of  England,  either  by  their  literary  or  political  talents, 
agreed  in  regarding  their  North  American  provinces,  ra- 

thorpe's  age.  Nichols,  in  his  Literary  Anecdotes,  states  that  he  died 
in  his  88th  year.  A  brief  notice  of  him  in  Rees's  Cyclopedia,  extends 
his  age  to  97 ;  another  account  says  92.  It  is  certain  that  after  having 
held  a  commission  in  the  British  service,  he  was  an  officer  of  rank  in 
the  German  army,  under  Prince  Eugene,  at  the  great  siege  and  battle 
of  Belgrade,  in  1717.  I  have  been  told  by  an  American  gentleman, 
who  saw  him  in  1781,  that  he  then  retained  all  the  animation  of  youth ; 
he  walked  erect  and  actively,  retained  his  hearing,  and  read  without 
spectacles  to  his  death. 

*  An  authentic,  and  tolerably  minute,  Life  of  General  Oglethorpe, 
is  a  desideratum.  The  above  notices  of  his  character  and  life  have 
been  gleaned  from  a  sketch  of  his  biography,  in  the  European  Maga 
zine,  for  1786.  Nichol's  Literary  Anecdotes,  vol.  VI.  TrumbulPs 
History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  I.  chap.  8.  and  Boswell's  Johnson. 
There  are  many  detached  passages  respecting  him,  scattered  through 
the  Gentlemen's  Magazine,  from  1730  to  1770.  He  was  eulogized  by 
the  Abbe  Raynal,  in  the  Histoire  Philosophique  ;  by  Warton,  in  his 


42  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

ther  as  possessions  affording  certain  means  of  commercial 
advantages,  than  as  integral  parts  of  a  great  empire.  It 
had  scarcely  occurred  to  any  of  them,  that  whether  fame 
or  the  good  of  mankind  were  their  object,  there  were  no 
means  by  which  they  could  reap  so  quick  and  abundant  a 
harvest  of  honour  and  usefulness,  as  by  sowing  the  seeds 
of  science  and  virtue  on  these  western  shores.  This 
arose,  in  the  main,  from  mere  negligence ;  for  the  states 
men  in  England,  in  those  days,  like  the  common 
place  politicians  of  every  age  and  nation,  were  too  much 
engrossed  by  the  little  objects  about  them,  to  look  forward 
upon  the  grand  and  bright  prospects  of  futurity.  Some 
times,  moreover,  that  narrow  policy  which  regards  the 
ignorance  of  the  people  as  the  firmest  foundation  of 
power,  shed  its  malignant  influence  over  our  colonial 
governments. 

One  remarkable  instance  of  this  is  worthy  of  being 
particularly  noted.  Sixty-four  years  after  the  first  settle 
ment  of  Virginia,  Sir  William  Berkely,  then  governor  of 
that  province,  in  an  official  communication  to  the  lords 
of  the  colonies,  observed,  "I  thank  God,  that  there  are 
no  'free-schools  nor  printing-presses  here ;  and  I  hope, 
that  we  shall  not  have  them  here  these  hundred  years  ; 
for  learning  has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy  and 
sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  hath  divulged  them  in 


notes  on  Pope,  and  by  several  minor  cotemporary  poets.  John  Wes 
ley  also  addressed  a  poem  to  him  full  of  panegyric.  The  fullest  ac 
count  of  his  administration  and  defence  of  Georgia,  is  in  M'Call's  his 
tory  of  Georgia.  Since  the  first  edition  of  this  discourse,  I  have  been 
informed  that  the  late  excellent  and  learned  Dr.  Kollock  of  Savannah, 
had  been  for  some  time  collecting  materials  for  a  life  of  General  Ogle- 
thorpe.  The  sudden  death  of  Dr.  Kollock,  in  the  prime  of  his  talents 
and  usefulness,  was  not  less  a  loss  to  literature  than  to  the  church. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  43 

libels  against  the  best  governments.  God  keep  us  from 
both."* 

Such  was  the  general  disposition  of  our  trans-atlantic 
rulers,  when  a  liberal  scheme  for  diffusing  light  and  truth 
over  the  American  continent,  and  the  West  India  Islands, 
was  proposed  by  Dean  Berkeley,  a  name  that  will  be 
venerable  as  long  as  learning  is  held  in  honour,  or  virtue 
has  reverence  among  men. 

Berkeley  was  born  and  educated  in  Ireland.  In  his 
youth,  like  his  friend  Oglethorpe,  he  had  been  patronized 
by  the  Earl  of  Peterborough,  (the  famous  Mordanto  of 
Swift,t)  who,  among  his  other  uncommon  qualities,  had 
a  remarkable  instinct  for  discovering  and  bringing  for 
ward  men  of  talents  of  all  descriptions.  Berkeley  was 
also  the  intimate  friend  and  companion  of  Pope  and 
Swift,  whose  wit  and  genius  he  honoured  without  partici 
pating  in  their  pride  and  selfishness.  He  had  gained  a 
very  high  reputation  in  the  learned  world,  by  several  of 
those  works  which  still  entitle  him  to  be  classed  among 

*  Ramsay's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  264. 

f  "  Morsanto  fills  the  trump  of  fame, 
The  Christian  world  his  deeds  proclaim, 
The  prints  are  crowded  with  his  name ; 
In  journeys  he  outrides  the  post, 
Sits  up  till  midnight  with  his  host, 
Talks  politics  and  gives  the  toast,"  &c. 

Shines  in  all  climates  like  a  star, 

In  senates  bold,  and  fierce  in  war, 

A  land  commander  and  a  tar,  &c.  &o. 

The  other  lines  are  equally  happy.  Such  a  graphic  delineation  oi 
character  gives  a  more  distinct  idea  of  the  man,  than  volumes  of  com 
mon-place  biography.  When  Lord  Peterborough  went  to  Italy,  as 
ambassador,  he  took  Oglethorpe  with  him  as  his  secretary,  and  Berke 
ley  as  his  chaplain,  both  of  them  then  very  young. 


44  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

the  most  profound  and  original  inquirers  into  the  philoso 
phy  of  mind,  and  the  first  principles  of  knowledge. 

In  his  Theory  of  Vision,  he  had  taught  us  to  distin 
guish  the  immediate  objects  of  sight  as  they  actually  af 
fect  the  senses  from  those  spontaneous  inferences,  which 
long  and  universal  habit  has  accustomed  us  to  form.* 
By  thus  disentangling  the  complicated  associations  of 
sight  and  touch,  he  had  solved  several  of  the  most  per 
plexing  phenomena  of  optics,  and  made  a  very  important 
advance  in  the  knowledge  of  the  mode  in  which  our 
mind  holds  converse  with  the  external  world.  Who 
ever  looks  back  upon  the  slow  progress  of  intellectual 
philosophy,  and  considers  how  little  has  been  done  by 
metaphysicians,  beyond  pulling  down  the  systems  of  their 
predecessors,  and  erecting  other  theories  of  their  own,  of 
equally  short  duration,  will,  I  think,  be  led  to  regard  this 
speculation  of  Berkeley's  as  decidedly  the  most  solid  and 
valuable  improvement  made  during  the  last  century  in 
the  knowledge  of  our  own  nature. 

In  another  essay  he  had,  with  the  same  acuteness, 
overthrown  the  theory  of  abstract  general  ideas,  and  es 
tablished  that  of  generalization  by  signs  and  words,  which 
has,  since  his  time,  become  the  prevailing  doctrine  among 
metaphysicians.! 

But  it  is  for  his  theory  denying  the  existence  of  a  ma 
terial  world,  the  most  ingenious,  and  yet,  in  truth,  the 
least  valuable  of  all  his  speculations,  that  he  is  now  most 
celebrated,  and  that  he  attracted  the  most  attention  in  his 
own  day.  He  held,  as  is  well  known,  that  the  things 
we  denominate  sensible  material  objects,  are  not  external 

*  Berkeley's  "Essay  towards  a  New  Theory  of  Vision,"  first  pub 
lished  in  1709.  See  also  Reid's  Inquiry,  chap.  6. 

fin  the  introduction  of  his  "Principles  of  Knowledge." 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE, 


45 


to  the  mind,  but  actually  existing  in  it,  and  are  merely 
impressions  made  on  the  intellect  by  the  immediate  pow 
er  of  the  Divine  mind,  acting  according  to  its  own  fixed 
and  constant  laws  ;  and  that  this  uniform  adherence  of 
the  Deity  to  his  own  rules,  alone  constitutes  the  reality 
of  tilings  to  his  intelligent  creatures :  these  laws  being 
intended  not  as  helps  to  the  Creator,  but  as  signs  to  the 
creature,  whereby  he  may  know  what  to  expect,  in  what 
manner  to  govern  himself,  and  how  to  direct  his  actions 
for  the  obtaining  of  any  end.* 

Berkeley  maintained  this  bold  paradox  with  an  inge 
nuity  of  argument,  which,  in  the  happy  phrase  of 
Hume,  "  admitted  of  no  answer,  and  produced  no  con 
viction." 

His  doctrines  have  been  frequently  assailed  by  coarse 
ridicule ;  yet,  however  fallacious  they  may  be,  it  is  but 
justice  to  the  memory  of  this  great  man.  to  observe,  that 
he  never  doubted  of  the  reality  of  our  sensations,  nor  of 
the  necessity  of  acting  according  to  their  information — 
that  it  is  a  gross  misrepresentation  of  his  opinions,  to  con 
sider  him  as  a  skeptic  who  disbelieved  his  own  senses — 
but  that  his  theory  regarded  solely  the  causes  of  our 
sensations,  and  his  skepticism  was  confined  to  the  single 
point,  whether  they  proceed  from  independently  existing 
substances  without  us,  or  from  a  stated  and  regular  com 
bination  of  sensible  ideas,  excited  immediately  by  the 
great  First  Cause. 

With  all  this  metaphysical  subtility,  Berkeley  was 
equally  distinguished  for  the  depth  and  variety  of  his 
knowledge,  the  exuberance  and  gracefulness  of  his  ima- 

*  "  Principles  of  Human  Knowledge,"  and  "  Dialogues  between  Hy 
las  and  Philonous."  "  Siris,"  sect.  160. 

D 


46  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

gination,  the  elegance  of  his  conversation  and  manners, 
and  the  purity  of  his  life.  It  was  about  the  fortieth  year 
of  his  age,  that,  wearied  out  by  these  fruitless  speculations, 
in  which  the  most  vigorous  mind  "  can  find  no  end,  in 
wandering  mazes  lost,"  he  conceived  the  project  of  found 
ing  a  University  in  the  Island  of  Bermuda,  on  so  liberal 
a  scale  as  to  afford  the  amplest  means  of  diffusing  scien 
tific  and  religious  instruction  over  the  whole  of  the  British 
possessions  in  America.  Dr.  Berkeley,  at  that  time,  held 
the  richest  church  preferment  in  Ireland,  and  had  the 
fairest  prospects  of  advancement  to  the  first  literary  and 
ecclesiastical  dignities  of  that  country,  or  even  of  England. 
All  these,  with  a  disinterestness  which  excited  the  aston 
ishment  and  sneers  of  Swift  and  his  literary  friends,  he 
proposed  to  resign  for  a  bare  maintenance  as  principal  of 
the  projected  American  University.  His  personal  char 
acter  and  influence,  and  the  warmth  of  his  benevolent 
eloquence,  soon  subdued  or  silenced  open  opposition.  He 
obtained  a  charter  from  the  crown,  and  the  grant  of  a  large 
sum  of  money,  to  be  raised  from  the  sale  of  certain  lands 
in  the  Island  of  St.  Christopher's,  which  had  been  ceded 
by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  to  the  British  government,  but 
had  afterwards  been  totally  forgotten  or  neglected,  and  of 
the  real  value  of  which  he  had  with  great  industry  ac 
quired  an  accurate  knowledge. 

To  describe  Berkeley's  confident  anticipations  of  the 
future  glories  of  America,  we  must  have  recourse  to  his 
own  words. 

The  Muse,  disgusted  at  an  age  and  clime- 
Barren  of  every  glorious  theme, 

In  distant  lands  now  waits  a  better  time, 
Producing  subjects  worthy  fame. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE,  47 

In  happy  climes  where  from  the  genial  sun 

And  virgin  earth  such  scenes  ensue, 
The  force  of  art  by  nature  seems  outdone, 

And  fancied  beauties  by  the  true  : 

In  happy  climes,  the  seat  of  innocence, 

Where  nature  guides  and  virtue  rules ; 
Where  men  shall  not  impose  for  truth  and  sense 

The  pedantry  of  courts  and  schools  : 

There  shall  be  sung  another  golden  age, 

The  rise  of  empires  and  of  arts, 
The  good  and  great,  inspiring  epic  rage, 

The  wisest  heads  and  noblest  hearts. 

Not  such  as  Europe  breeds  in  her  decay, 
Such  as  she  bred  when  fresh  and  young, 

When  heavenly  flame  did  animate  her  clay, 
By  future  poets  shall  be  sung. 

Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way; 

The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day — 

Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last. 

I  have  quoted  these  fine  lines  at  length  because  I  do 
not  recollect  to  have  seen  or  heard  them  referred  to  in  this 
country.  They  were  written  fifty  years  before  the  decla 
ration  of  independence ;  and  to  the  patriot  who  may  now 
exult  with  undoubting  hope,  in  the  great  and  sure  desti 
nies  of  our  nation,  they  may  well  seem  to  revive  the  old 
connexion  between  the  prophetic  character  and  that  of 
the  poet: 

For,  in  a  Roman  mouth,  the  graceful  name 
Of  poet  and  of  prophet  were  the  same.* 

Confiding  in  these  glorious  auguries,  and  animated  by 
the  pure  ambition  of  contributing  to  hasten  forward  this 
"  rise  of  empire  and  of  arts,"  he  sailed  from  England  in 

*  Cowper. 


48  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

1728.  He  came  first  to  Rhode-Island,  where  he  deter 
mined  to  remain  for  a  short  time,  for  the  purpose  of  pur 
chasing  lands  on  this  continent  as  estates  for  the  support 
of  his  college,  as  well  as  in  order  to  gain  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  Northern  colonies.  Here  he  soon  be 
came  convinced  that  he  had  erred  altogether  in  his  choice 
of  Bermuda ;  and  he  applied  for  an  alteration  of  his  char 
ter,  empowering  him  to  select  some  place  on  the  American 
continent  for  the  site  of  the  University,  which  would, 
probably,  have  been  fixed  in  the  city  of  New- York,  or  in 
its  vicinity.*  But  in  the  succeeding  year  all  his  sanguine 
hopes  were  at  once  extinguished  by  an  unexpected  court 
intrigue ;  and  a  large  sum,  (90,OOOZ.  sterling  in  all,)  that 
had  been  paid  into  the  treasury  from  the  funds  pointed 
out  by  Berkeley,  and  part  of  which  had  been  solemnly 
appropriated  to  the  projected  institution,  by  a  vote  of  par 
liament,  was  seized  by  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  to  pay  the 
marriage  portion  of  the  Princess  Royal ;  an  additional 
proof,  if  proof  were  needed,  of  the  truth  of  the  old  repub 
lican  adage,  that  the  very  trappings  of  a  monarchy  are 
sufficient  to  support  a  moderate  commonwealth. 

The  two  years  and  a  half  of  Berkeley's  residence  in 
Rhode-Island,  had  not  been  idly  spent.  It  was  there 
that  he  composed  his  Minute  Philosopher,  a  work  writ 
ten  on  the  model  of  the  Philosophical  Dialogues  of  his 
favourite,  Plato,  and,  like  them,  to  be  admired  for  the 
graces  which  a  rich  imagination  has  carelessly  and  pro 
fusely  scattered  over  its  pages,  as  well  as  for  novelty  of 
thought  and  ingenuity  of  argument.  The  rural  descrip 
tions  which  frequently  occur  in  it,  are,  it  is  said,  exqui- 
.',..:.;  .;u  '.-.. ;  ; 

*  This  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Chandler,  Life  of  President  Johnson. 
Others  have  said  that  it  would  have  been  transferred  to  Rhode-Island. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  49 

site  pictures  of  some  of  those  delightful  landscapes  which 
presented  themselves  to  his  eye  at  the  time  he  was  writ 
ing. 

His  residence  in  this  country,  gave  a  general  stimulus 
to  literary  and  scientific  exertion.  He  became  personally 
acquainted  with  all  who  had  any  literary  taste  or  acquire 
ment,  especially  among  the  clergy  of  different  denomi 
nations,  with  several  of  whom  he  formed  a  close  intimacy, 
and  continued  to  encourage  and  patronize  them  by  every 
means  in  his  power  during  his  whole  life.  He  minutely 
examined  into  the  state  of  the  public  institutions  in  the 
northern  and  middle  colonies,  and  after  his  return  to 
England;  rendered  them  several  important  services  by  his 
pen  and  his  influence.  Having  observed  the  serious  in 
conveniences,  under  which  American  students  laboured, 
from  the  want  of  books,  and  the  defects  of  early  classical 
education,  shortly  after  his  return,  he  sent  out  to  Yale  Col 
lege  a  large  and  choice  collection  of  the  best  works  in 
different  branches  of  learning,  which  still  forms  the  most 
valuable  part  of  the  public  library  of  that  respectable  and 
useful  institution.  He  accompanied  this  present  with  a 
deed  of  gift  of  his  property  in  Rhode-Island,  directing  it 
to  be  appropriated  to  the  support  of  three  scholarships,  to 
bestowed  upon  the  best  classical  scholars  of  each  year. 
This  soon  produced  a  happy  effect,  and  the  Dean's  Boun 
ty,  as  it  is  still  called,  has  materially  contributed  to  keep 
up,  and  gradually  to  raise,  the  standard  of  learning  in 
a  college  which  has,  for  many  years,  educated  a  large 
portion  of  the  scholars  and  professional  men  of  this  country. 

Dr.  Berkeley  was  also  a  liberal  benefactor  to  the  library 
of  Harvard  College;*  and  the  college  of  New- York,  on  its 

*  This  fact  appears  in  the  Life  of  Hollis,  where,  among  the  valuable 


50  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

first  establishment  some  years  after,  was  essentially  in 
debted  to  him  for  assistance  and  support. 

Berkeley  returned  to  Europe  mortified  and  disappoint 
ed  ;  but  as  there  was  nothing  selfish  or  peevish  in  his  na 
ture,  the  failure  of  this  long  cherished  and  darling  project 
could  not  abate  the  ardour  of  his  philanthropy. 

The  rest  of  his  history  belongs  more  to  Ireland  than  to 
America.  Never  had  that  ill-governed  and  injured  coun 
try  a  purer  or  more  devoted  patriot.  His  Querist,  his 
Letters  to  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  and  his  other  tracts 
on  Irish  politics,  are  full  of  practical  good  sense,  unbound 
ed  charity,  and  the  warmest  affection  for  his  country. 

Such  was  the  strong  and  general  sense  of  the  useful 
ness  of  these  labours,  that,  in  1749,  the  body  of  the  Irish 
Roman  Catholic  clergy,  in  a  formal  address  to  Dr.  Berke 
ley,  who  was  then  Protestant  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  returned 
him  "  their  sincere  and  hearty  thanks,"  for  certain  of  these 
publications,  assuring  him  that  "  they  were  determined  to 
comply  with  his  advice  in  all  particulars  ;"  they  add, 
"  that  every  page  contains  a  proof  of  the  author's  exten 
sive  charity,  his  views  are  only  towards  the  public  good, 
and  his  manner  of  treating  persons,  in  their  circum 
stances,  so  very  uncommon,  that  it  plainly  shows  the 
good  man,  the  polite  gentleman,  and  the  true  patriot." 


contents  of  the  old  library,  destroyed  by  fire  in  1764,  are  mentioned  the 
donations  of  the  "liberal  and  catholic  Bishop  Berkeley."  He  died  be 
fore  King's  (no w.Columbia)  College  was  fully  established.  As  the  first 
president  was  his  intimate  friend,  it  is  highly  probable  that,  had  he 
lived,  he  would  have  patronized  it  very  efficiently  and  liberally.  While 
the  plan  for  erecting  the  college  was  in  agitation,  he  exerted  himself  in. 
its  support,  advised  the  course  of  study,  and  patronized  the  subscrip 
tion.  I  believe,  though  I  have  no  direct  authority  for  the  assertion, 
that  he  also  assisted,  in  the  same  way,  the  college  of  Philadelphia,  now 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  founded  about  the  same  time. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  51 

This  is  a  panegyric  as  honourable  to  those  who  gave 
it,  as  it  was  to  him  who  received  it.  It  presents  an  in 
stance  of  pure  and  enlightened  benevolence  on  the  one 
side,  and  of  liberal  gratitude  on  the  other,  which,  I  fear, 
has  few  parallels  in  the  ecclesiastical  annals  of  Ireland. 

Berkeley's  was  one  of  those  rare  minds,  which,  by  the 
alchemy  of  true  genius,  can  transmute  and  ennoble  all 
that  they  touch.  In  his  Queries  proposed  for  the  good  of 
Ireland,  he  incidentally  laid  open  many  new  and  inte 
resting  views  in  the  then  uncultivated  science  of  political 
economy;  and  all  his  writings  on  ephemeral  subjects  are 
marked  with  that  sure  indication  of  an  elevated  mind, 
the  habit  of  referring  objects  of  local  or  transitory  interest 
to  those  broad  grounds  of  general  reason  and  conscience, 
without  the  frequent  contemplation  of  which,  says  he.  a 
man  may  indeed  be  a  thriving  earthworm,  but  he  will 
prove  but  a  sorry  patriot.  Whatever  may  be  the  result 
of  his  arguments  upon  any  point,  it  is  impossible  to  follow 
him  through  his  chain  of  reasoning  without  being  in 
structed  and  improved.  In  this  respect  as  in  some  others, 
he  resembled  Warburton.  In  every  investigation,  to 
which  these  acute,  intrepid,  and  excursive  reasoners  ap 
plied  their  powerful  minds,  they  continually  struck  out 
brilliant  thoughts  and  frequent  flashes  of  light,  even  where 
they  failed  in  the  ultimate  object  of  their  labours.*  But 
Berkely  was  very  superior  to  the  dogmatic  "Lord  of  pa- 
radoxal  land,"  in  the  perfect  candour  and  good  faith  with 
which  he  maintains  his  opinions,  and  still  more  in  the 
beautiful  moral  colouring  he  always  gives  to  his  learning 

*  Berkeley's  tract  on  the  doctrine  of  Passive  Obedience,  which  he 
wrote  when  very  youhg,  is  a  strong  example  of  this.  He  is,  most 
clearly,  wrong  in  his  conclusions,  and  yet,  few  discussions  on  abstract 
politics  abound  with  so  many  acute  remarks  and  original  views. 


52  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

and  his  argument,  and  in  the  consequent  moral  effect  on 
the  mind  of  his  reader.  For  it  was  the  unceasing  aim 
of  all  his  philosophy  "gently  to  unbind  the  ligaments 
which  chain  the  soul  to  the  earth,  and  to  assist  her  flight 
upwards  towards  the  Sovereign  Good."* 

He  died  at  Oxford,  in  1763,  in  his  seventy-third  year. 
His  epitaph  in  the  cathedral  church  of  that  city,  deserves 
to  be  cited  for  the  dignified  and  concise  elegance  with 
which  it  records  his  praise.t 

On  a  stone,  over  his  grave,  is  the  often  quoted  line  of 
Pope, 

"  To  Berkeley  every  virtue  under  Heaven;" 

and  above  it,  after  his  names  and  titles, 

Viro 

Seu  ingenii  et  eruditionis  laudem 

Seu  probitatis  et  beneficentiae  spectemus, 

Inter  primes  omnium  aetatum  niimerando. 

'Si  Christianus  fueris, 

Si  amans  patriae, 

Utroque  nomine  gaudere  potes 

BERKELEIUM  VIXISSE. 

The  mention  of  Bishop  Berkeley's  encouragement  of 
learning  in  this  country,  recalls  the  name  of  a  still  more 
munificent  patron  of  our  literature. 

Thomas  Hollis,  "  an  Englishman,  a  lover  of  liberty," 

*  Siris. 

f  It  is  ascribed  to  the  late  Archbishop  Markham,  then  head  master 
of  Westminster  school.  For  the  other  facts  respecting  Berkeley's  Life 
and  Writings,  see  Berkeley's  Works,  with  Life  and  Correspondence 
prefixed,  2  vols.  4to.  London.  Also,  Biographia  Britannica,  article 
Berkeley.  And  with  respect  to  his  university,  and  the  influence  of  his 
visit  on  the  learning  of  America.  Chandler's  Life  of  President  Johnson. 
Clap's  History  of  Yale  College.  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut, 
vol.  II.  chap.  12.  Miller's  Retrospect,  II.  349. 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  53 

as  he  was  wont  to  style  himself,  inherited  an  ample  for 
tune  at  an  early  age.  From  his  boyhood  he  was  grave, 
studious,  and  austere,  and  as  his  mind  unfolded  itself,  the 
patriot  passion  took  entire  possession  of  his  breast. 

"When  a  boy  at  school,"  said  he,  "I  used  to  rob  na 
ture  of  her  rest  to  read  Plutarch,  honest  Plutarch,  and  to 
read  again  the  lives  of  his  heroes;  and  to  him  I  owe,  I 
willingly  confess,  the  finest  dispositions  of  my  mind." 

This  admiration  of  the  heroes  of  ancient  liberty,  natu 
rally  led  him  to  the  study  of  the  republican  writers  of 
England,  among  whom,  Milton  and  Algernon  Sidney 
soon  became  his  prime  favourites.  He  was  inflamed  with 
an  almost  idolatrous  admiration  of  the  learned  imagina 
tion,  the  lofty  sentiment,  and  moral  wisdom  of  Milton ; 
of  the  manly  and  simple,  yet  stately,  Aloquence  of  Sidney ; 
and  of  the  republican  ardour  of  both.  In  endeavouring 
to  assimilate  his  mind  to  these  great  models,  he  contracted 
some  of  the  hard  and  stern  features  of  their  character. 
At  least,  it  is  observable,  that  his  indignation  against  the 
wrong  doer  was  generally  more  forcibly  expressed  than 
his  sympathy  for  the  wronged ;  and  he  was  too  ready 
and  bitter  in  imputing  selfish  or  slavish  motives  to  men 
of  as  pure  intentions  as  his  own.* 

He  was  besides  a  little  tinctured  with  that  exaggera- 

*  I  allude,  among  other  instances  of  the  same  sort,  to  his  constant  vi 
tuperation  of  the  good  Dr.  Seeker.  I  presume  that  it  was  on  this  ac 
count  that  Mrs.  Carter  (Boswell's  Johnson,  III.  220.)  censured  him  for 
uncharitableness,  and  justly.  But  she  erred  herself  in  the  same  way,  in 
calling  Hollis  an  atheist. 

Hollis  was  not  an  atheist,  nor  had  he  any  tendency,  as  Johnson  said, 
"  to  exuberate  into  an  atheist."  He  was  a  devout  man,  though,  like 
Milton,  he  belonged  to  no  sect,  and  attended  no  form  of  public  worship  : 
but  was,  as  Btirnet  says  of  Sidney,  "  a  Christian  after  a  way  of  his 
own." 


54  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

tion  of  thought  and  artificial  manner  which  usually  ac 
company  a  professed  and  studious  imitation  of  any  indi  • 
vidual  model,  however  excellent  it  may  be. 

Nevertheless,  his  zeal  was  always  honest  and  always 
well  directed,  and  it  may  be  said  of  him,  in  the  Miltonic 
language  he  loved, 


all  his  mind  was  set 


Serious  to  learn  and  know,  and  thence  t6  do 
What  might  be  public  good;  himself  he  thought 
Born  to  that  end,  born,  to  promote  all  truth, 
And  righteous  things. 

He  despised  all  the  parade  of  life,  and  indulged  him 
self  in  none  of  those  luxuries  or  amusements  common  to 
men  of  fortune,  but  devoted  nearly  the  whole  of  his  large 
revenue  to  objects  of  public  utility.  The  narrative  of 
his  life  is  little  more  than  a  recital  of  a  long  series  of  libe 
ral  and  public-spirited  benefactions,  either  for  the  relief  or 
encouragement  of  meritorious  individuals,  or  for  the  pro 
motion  of  what  he  judged  to  be  the  most  valuable  inte 
rests  of  mankind.  He  dedicated  his  literary  talent  and 
and  his  taste  in  the  fine  arts  to  the  same  end.*  "  My 
purpose,"  said  he,  speaking  of  one  of  his  undertakings, 
but,  in  truth,  describing  them  all,  "is  to  illustrate  and  sup- 

*  The  splendid  quarto  edition  of  the  Memoirs  of  Thomas  Hollis, 
(published  by  his  nephew,  T.  B.  Hollis,)  is  filled  with  engravings  from 
original  drawings  and  portraits,  which  Hollis  had  published  or  distri 
buted  during  his  life. 

These  were  designed  and  executed  under  his  immediate  inspection, 
at  his  own  expense,  and  from  his  own  ideas,  sometimes  to  encourage 
and  bring  into  notice  a  meritorious  artist,  or  sometimes  to  spread  or  re 
vive  the  fame  of  some  favourite  hero  or  author.  They  are  all  very  cre 
ditable  to  his  taste  in  the  arts.  I  do  not  rate  his  literary  talent  so  high ; 
but  his  style,  though  it  is  too  affectedly  antiquated,  smacks  of  the  ele 
vation  and  grave  dignity  of  Milton  and  Sidney. 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  55 

port  Liberty,  to  preserve  the  memory  of  its  champions, 
to  make  tyranny  and  its  abettors  odious,  to  extend  sci 
ence  and  art,  and  to  keep  alive  the  honour  and  estima 
tion  of  their  patrons ;  and  if  such  should  be  the  fitness 
of  things,  to  propagate  the  same  benevolent  spirit  to  pos 
terity." 

One  of  his  most  usual  modes  of  carrying  these  gene 
rous  designs  into  effect,  was  the  publication  and  distribu 
tion,  at  his  own  expense,  of  valuable  books.  Besides  re- 
publishing  in  this  way  most  of  the  classical  writers  of  old 
English  republican  politics,  he  reprinted  in  England,  se 
veral  of  the  most  important  American  pamphlets  and 
essays,  that  appeared  during  those  political  discussions 
which  led  to  our  Independence. 

He  selected  Harvard  College  as  the  particular  object 
of  his  munificence  in  America,  as  his  father  had  done 
before  him  ;  and  for  many  years  continued  to  bestow 
upon  it  benefaction  after  benefaction,  with  so  much  judg 
ment^,  and  taste,  and  with  such  princely  generosity, 
that  the  Hollis  family  may  be  considered  as  the  second 
founders  of  that  now  prosperous,  wealthy  and  learned 
university. 

Judicious  beneficence  has  often  the  power  of  extend 
ing  itself  far  into  futurity.  The  liberality  of  Hollis  has, 
since  his  death,  called  forth  repeated  similar  instances  of 
individual  bounty;  to  which  Harvard  is  chiefly  in 
debted  for  her  numerous  professorships  and  her  splen 
did  Library. 

Hollis  died  suddenly,  in  1774,  and  it  was  happily  and 
truly  said  of  him,  by  one  of  his  friends,  that,  "  at  his  death, 
Liberty  lost  her  champion,  Humanity  her  treasurer,  and 
Charity  her  steward."* 

*  For  further  notices  of  the  life  and  benefactions  of  Hollis,  see  Me- 


56  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

As  we  approach  the  period  of  American  Independence, 
the  names  of  the  early  friends  of  our  liberties  among  the 
patriots  and  scholars  of  Great  Britain  crowd  upon  my 
memory.  I  would  gladly  dilate  upon  the  worth  and 
merits  of  many  of  them.  I  would  specially  wish  to  ex 
press  the  deep  respect  I  feel  for  the  memory  of  Dr.  Rich 
ard  Price,  as  a  philosopher  trained  in  the  school  of  Locke, 
but  who,  rising  to  a  higher  and  transcendental  philoso 
phy  rejected  the  low  and  false  conclusions  whither  his 
master's  doctrines  would  have  led  him,  as  to  the  theory  of 
moral  obligation,  and  taught  us  to  seek  the  deep  founda 
tions  of  right  and  wrong,  in  the  immutable  principles  of 
eternal  truth ; — as  the  firm  and  bold  champion  of  ration 
al  liberty — as  the  ardent  advocate  of  our  independence — 
as  the  friend,  the  adviser,  and  the  benefactor  of  our  best 
men  and  our  best  institutions.  I  would  gladly  speak  too, 
of  the  philanthropist  and  scholar,  Granville  Sharpe,  and  of 
David  Hartley,  who,  worthily  sustained  the  honours  of 
a  name  made  illustrious  by  his  father's  philosophy.  But 
this  discourse  is  already  so  far  extended  beyond  the  ordi 
nary  limits  of  such  compositions,  that  were  I  to  indulge 
such  wishes,  I  should  have  time  for  little  else  than  a  mere 
enumeration  of  those  virtuous  and  wise  men  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  who  have,  on  different  accounts, 
merited  the  gratitude  of  the  American  people. 

Indeed,  such  is  the  sympathy  between  that  nation  and 
our  own,  resulting  from  the  unity  of  our  language  and 
literature,  aud  the  similarity  of  our  laws,  our  tastes,  and 
domestic  manners,  that  scarce  any  well-directed  effort  to 
enlarge  the  knowledge  or  to  promote  the  good  of  man- 

moirs  of  Thomas  Hollis,  2  vols.  4to.  London,  said  to  have  been  com 
piled  by  the  once  celebrated  Archdeacon  Blackburne,  author  of  the 
Confessionals. 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  57 

kind,  can  be  made  in  either  country^  without  its  effects 
being  instantaneously  felt  in  the  other. 

Nor  have  we,  at  present,  any  tta'ng  to  dread  from  this 
reciprocal  influence.  The  time  has  now  gone  by  when 
a  prudent  policy  might  well  look  with  suspicion  upon 
every  thing  which  tended  to  impair  the  individuality  of 
our  national  character.  It  may  have  been  wise  to  guard 
the  infancy  of  the  nation  from  foreign  corruptions,  even 
at  the  expense  of  foreign  arts  and  learning.  But  we 
have  now  risen  into  the  manhood  of  our  existence  ;  and 
whether  we  look  to  the  past  or  the  future,  every  thing 
conspires  to  animate  us  with  the  proud  consciousness  of 
our  independence.  We  may  now  gather  without  fear, 
the  fruits  of  British  industry  and  genius.  Theirs  is  a  li 
terature,  rich  and  pure  beyond  example;  theirs  is  the  ri 
pened  wisdom  of  centuries,  treasured  up  in  the  works  of 
Jurists,  Divines,  Philosophers  and  Patriots.  If  we  are 
but  true  to  ourselves,  that  wisdom  and  that  literature  are 
our  own,  unmixed  with  any  of  the  baser  matter,  where 
with  power,  prejudice,  and  corruption,  have  too  often  al 
loyed  the  pure  gold. 

But  we  have,  also,  debts  of  gratitude  to  acknowledge 
in  other  quarters. 

We  have  no  cause  to  blush  for  any  part  of  our  origi 
nal  descent,  and  least  of  all  for  our  Dutch  Ancestry.  The 
colony  of  New  Amersterdam,  was  founded  by  Holland, 
at  a  time  when  that  nation  had  just  sprung  into  political 
existence,  after  a  long,  bloody,  and  most  glorious  struggle 
against  civil  and  religious  tyranny,  during  which  all  the 
energies  of  patriotism,  courage,  and  talents,  had  been 
suddenly  and  splendidly  developed. 


58  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

And  shall  we  not  proclaim, 
That  blood  of  honest  fame 
Which  no  tyranny  could  tame 
By  its  chain  ?  * 

After  having  beaten  down  and  broken  for  ever  the  co 
lossal  power  of  the  Spanish  monarchy,  the  Dutch  republic 
continued,  for  nearly  a  century,  to  hold  the  balance  of 
European  politics  with  a  strong  and  steady  hand;  and 
when  the  rest  of  the  continent  crouched  under  the  me 
naces,  and  the  English  court  was  bought  by  the  gold  of 
France,  she  stood  alone  and  undaunted,  defending  the 
liberties  of  the  world  with  a  perseverance  and  self-devo 
tion  never  surpassed  by  any  nation.  During  the  same 
period  she  had  served  the  cause  of  freedom  and  reason, 
in  another  and  much  more  effectual  manner,  by  breaking 
down  the  old  aristocratic  contempt  for  the  mercantile  cha 
racter;  and  her  merchants,  while  they  amazed  the  world 
by  an  exhibition  of  the  wonderful  effects  of  capital  and 
credit,  directed  by  sagacity  and  enterprise,  and  operating 
on  a  vaster  scale  than  had  ever  before  been  seen,  shamed 
the  poor  prejudices  of  their  age  out  of  countenance  by  a 
high-minded  and  punctilious  honesty.,  before  which,  the 
more  lax  commercial  morality  of  our  own  times  and  coun 
try  should  stand  rebuked. 

It  was  about  this  same  remarkable  period  of  her  his 
tory,  that  Holland  produced  many  of  the  most  illustrious 
men  of  modern  Europe.  There  are  no  greater  names  in 
politics  and  arms,  than  Barneveldt  and  Dewitt,  than 
Trompt  and  De  Ruyter,  than  Prince  Maurice  and  the 
Williams  of  Orange — none  more  conspicuous  in  letters 


*  Allston. 

t  Most  English  writers  call  him  Van  Tromp :  this  is  an  error. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  59 

and  philosophy  than  those  of  Erasmus,  Grotius,  and 
Boerhaave.  In  physical  and  mathematical  science,  with 
the  single  exception  of  the  discoveries  of  Newton  and  Ga 
lileo,  more  had  been  done  in  Holland  than  in  any  other 
nation  of  Europe.  It  was  there  that  were  invented  the 
most  important  and  useful  instruments  of  Natural  Philo 
sophy  ;  the  telescope,  by  Jansen ;  the  microscope  and  the 
thermometer,  by  Drebell;*  the  micrometer,  and  the  pen 
dulum,  in  its  application  to  clocks,  and  as  a  standard  of 
measure,  by  Huyghens ;  and  the  Ley  den  Phial,  by  Cu- 
neus  and  Muschenbroek.  It  was  there  that  an  arch  of 
the  meridian  was  for  the  first  time  accurately  measured.! 
The  Medical  School  of  Leyden,  in  the  time  of  Boerhaave 
and  his  immediate  successors,  was  what  that  of  Edin 
burgh  has  since  become.  In  ancient  literature,  the  scho 
lars  of  Holland  effected  all  that  learning  and  industry 
could  accomplish,  and  prepared  the  way  for  that  very  in 
genious  and  philosophical  investigation  of  the  principles 
of  language  which  has  since  been  so  successfully  culti 
vated  in  the  Dutch  Universities,  by  Schultens,  Hemers- 
tuis,  Valckenear,  and  Hoogeven.  Her  Jurists  were  the 
expounders  of  public  and  of  civil  law  to  the  continent, 
whilst  the  theologians  of  the  whole  Protestant  world  en 
tered  into  the  controversies  of  the  Dutch  divines,  and  had 
ranked  themselves,  on  either  side,  under  the  banners  of 
Gomar  or  Arminius. 

*  The  French  Dictionnaire  Historique,  a  work  of  high  authority,  as 
cribes  these  inventions  to  Cornelius  Drebell,  a  Dutch  chemist,  and  SQ 
too  does  his  countryman,  Muschenbroek.  Few  English  writers  on  op 
tics  mention  him.  But  whoever  was  the  inventor  of  the  microscope,  the 
first  man  who  made  it*  an  efficient  instrument  of  science,  was  Leuwen- 
hock,  who  was  also  a  Dutchman. 

f  Between  Bergen  op  Zoom  and  Alkmaer,  in  1617,  by  Snelius,  a  Dutch 
mathematician. 


60  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

Nor  were  the  talents  of  the  nation  exclusively  dedicated 
to  the  severer  muses.  Their  vernacular  literature  is  much 
richer  than  is  commonly  supposed;*  but  the  narrow  li 
mits  of  a  language  which  was  in  its  extent  little  more 
than  a  provincial  dialect,  forced  most  of  the  scholars  of 
Holland  to  seek  for  fame  through  the  medium  of  the  other 
cultivated  languages  of  Europe,  and  of  the  Latin.  Some 
of  the  most  valuable  contributions  to  French  literature,! 
are  from  the  pens  of  Dutch  authors;  and  the  most  per 
fect  specimens  of  modern  latinity,  both  in  prose  and  verse, 
are  to  be  found  in  their  works.  Among  these  is  to  be 
numbered  a  history  of  their  own  revolution,  deservedly 
esteemed  one  of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  modern 
historical  composition,  and  rivalling  the  elegance,  acute- 
ness,  and  condensation  of  Tacitus. 

Besides  attaining  to  distinguished  excellence  in  other 
walks  of  art  and  taste,£  Holland  could  boast  of  having 

*  In  the  Royal  Library  of  Paris,  there  is  a  collection  of  dramatic 
works  in  the  Dutch  language,  containing  near  three  thousand  separate 
pieces.  The  works  of  the  historian  Hooft,  are  scarcely  known  out  of 
his  own  country;  they  should  be  made  part  of  the  common  stock  of 
European  literature,  by  a  good  English  or  French  translation.  Mira- 
beau  calls  him  the  Tacitus  of  Holland ;  and  speaking  of  his  history  of 
the  Low  Countries,  says :  "  Get  ouvrage reunit  tous les  genres  de merite. 
II  est  reccommendable  pour  1'ezactitude  des  fails,  fortement  pense", 
purement  ecrit." — Lettres  aux  Bataves. 

f  Tenhove's  Family  of  the  Medici,  may  be  taken  as  one  instance  of 
this  out  of  many.  It  is  highly  and  deservedly  commended  by  Gibbon 
for  its  literary  and  historical  merit,  and  as  remarkable  for  having  been 
written  by  the  native  of  one  country,  upon  the  literature  of  another,  in 
the  language  of  a  third. 

|  Somewhere  in  the  Spectator,  Addison  justly  extols  the  beauty 
and  pure  taste  of  the  monuments  of  the  gr.eat  admirals  in  the 
churches  in  Holland,  and  contrasts  them  to  the  absurdities  and  bar 
barism  of  that  of  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel  and  others  in  Westminster 
Abbey, 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  61 

formed  a  numerous  and  original  school  of  painters,  who, 
for  absolute  verity  of  representation,  and  powerful  deli 
neation  of  ordinary  nature  and  common  life,  are  entitled 
to  the  same  rank  in  the  imitative  arts,  that  Le  Sage  and 
Smollett  occupy  in  literature.  More  than  this — it  had 
given  birth  to  Rembrandt,  who,  by  carrying  to  their  full 
extent  the  power  of  light  and  shade,  and  the  magic  of 
colouring,  produced,  at  will,  the  most  beautiful  and  the 
most  sublime  effects,  and  is,  on  that  account,  deservedly 
enrolled  among  those  great  masters  who  have  augment 
ed  the  power  of  human  skill,  and  multiplied  the  means 
of  intellectual  pleasure  ;  who  have  raised  painting  from 
imitation  into  poetry,  from  a  mechanic  art  to  a  learned 
and  liberal  profession. 

In  their  internal  administration  the  United  Provinces 
anticipated,  and  in  some  points  surpassed,  the  wisdom 
and  equality  of  our  own  institutions.  The  traveller  saw 
with  admiration  the  land  that  was  but  yesterday  rescued 
from  the  ocean  by  human  industry,  now  filled  with  busy 
and  crowded  cities,  and  beautiful  in  the  placid  richness 
of  high  cultivation  ;*  no  sign  of  misery  or  of  oppression 
anywhere  met  his  eye,  and  in  all  that  he  beheld  of  pri 
vate  comfort  or  of  public  magnificence  he  was  forced  to 
acknowledge  the  work  of  liberty. 

This  sketch  of  the  early  glories  of  the  Dutch  republic 
is  but  slight  and  imperfect,  and  yet  even  this  must  fill  us 

*  Diderot,  who  visited  Holland  in  1773,  and  therefore  saw  it  a 
little  fallen  from  its  former  glories,  though  still  under  the  influence  of 
its  ancient  government  and  manners,  observes,  "  Une  des  choses  dont 
on  est  continuellement  et  delicieusement  touche  dans  toute  la  Hollande, 
c'est  de  n'y  recontrer,  nulle  part,  ni  la  vue  de  la  misere,  ni  le  spectacle 
de  la  tyrannic."  The  Dutch  nation  still  retains  many  points  of  its  an 
cient  character,  but  it  no  longer  enjoys  this  happy  exemption  from  the 
ills  which  afflict  the  rest  of  Europe. 

E* 


62  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

with  astonishment,  when  we  reflect  that  such  were  the 
exploits  and  attainments  of  a  people  occupying  a  terri 
tory  not  equal  in  extent  to  Maryland,*  and  much  infe 
rior  to  it  in  natural  advantages  ;  and  whose  whole  popu 
lation  did  not  exceed  the  present  census  of  the  state  of 
New- York. 

These  remarks  ought  to  have  been  wholly  unneces 
sary  in  this  place  ;  but  I  know  not  whence  it  is,  that  we 
in  this  country  have  imbibed  much  of  the  English  habit 
of  arrogance  and  injustice  towards  the  Dutch  character. 

English  writers  have  long  been  accustomed  to  describe 
the  peculiar  manners  and  customs  of  Holland  with  a 
broad  and  clumsy  exaggeration.  This  is  a  little  injudi 
cious  in  them,  because  most  of  their  wit,  if  wit  it  may 
be  called,  recoils  back  upon  their  own  country,  and  strik 
ingly  resembles  the  flippant  ridicule  which  their  own 
more  lively  neighbours  have  lavished  upon  the  hard 
drinking,  the  oaths,  the  gross  amusements,  the  dingy 
coffee-houses,  the  boxing  matches,  the  beer,  and  the 
coal-smoke  of  the  awkward  and  melancholy  Islanders.f 
Their  old  maritime  contests  and  commercial  rivalry  may 
serve  to  excuse  this  misrepresentation  in  Englishmen, 
but  for  us  there  is  no  apology. 

The  subject  is  not  a  pleasing  one,  and  I  do  not  wish 
to  dwell  upon  it ;  yet  I  cannot  refrain  from  observing 
two  most  notable  instances  of  this  spirit  among  English 
writers.  Dryden  and  the  other  dramatists  and  occasional 


*  The  seven  United  Provinces  were  calculated  to  contain  something 
less  than  10,000  square  miles.  Maryland  contains  10,660. 

f  See,  among  many  other  instances,  the  pleasantry  of  the  witty  Beau- 
marchais  on  these  subjects  in  his  "  Marriage  de  Figaro,"  and  of  the 
lively  author  of  the  "  duinze  Jours  a  Londres  ;"  to  say  nothing  of  the 
gross  inventions  of  General  Fillet  and  others. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  63 

poets  of  Charles  II.'s  reign  are  full  of  sarcasms  upon 
Dutch  cowardice;  and  yet,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  most 
of  these  sarcasms  were  given  to  the  English  public  about 
the  very  time  that  London  was  trembling  at  the  sound 
of  De  Ruyter's  cannon  on  the  Thames,  and  but  a  few 
years  after  the  time  when  Tromp,  after  defeating  Ad 
miral  Blake,  the  Nelson  of  that  day,  triumphantly  swept 
the  commerce  of  England  from  the  narrow  seas.  The 
other  instance  is  of  later  date.  Almost  within  our  own 
memory,  a  learned  English  judge,  (Sir  James  Marriott) 
in  a  formal  and  laboured  opinion,  took  occasion  to  sneer 
at  the  treatise  of  Huberus,  De  conflictu  Legum,  which 
has  settled  the  law  of  the  greater  part  of  the  civilized 
world  on  the  often  litigated  points  of  the  Lex  loci  con- 
tractus,  as  "  the  dull  work  of  a  Dutch  school- master, 
written  in  the  worst  Latin,  and  printed  on  the  worst 
paper  he  had  ever  seen.* 

It  is  more  "in  sorrow  than  in  anger"  that  I  feel  my 
self  compelled  to  add  to  these  gross  instances  of  national 
injustice,  an  early  work  of  a  writer  of  our  own,  who  is 
justly  considered  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of  Ame 
rican  literature.  I  allude  to  the  burlesque  history  of 
New- York,  in  which  it  is  painful  to  see  a  mind,  as  ad 
mirable  for  its  exquisite  perception  of  the  beautiful,  as  it 
is  for  its  quick  sense  of  the  ridiculous,  wasting  the  riches 
of  its  fancy  on  an  ungrateful  theme,  and  its  exuberant 
humour  in  a  coarse  caricature.t 

This  writer  has  not  yet  fulfilled  all  the  promise  he 
has  given  to  his  country.  It  is  his  duty,  because  it  is 
in  his  power,  to  brush  away  the  pretenders  who  may  at 
any  time  infest  her  society,  her  science,  or  her  politics  : 

*  Sir  James  Marriott's  opinion  in  the  case  of  the  Columbus, 
f  Knickerbocker's  History  of  New-York. 


64  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

or  if  he  aspires,  as  I  trust  that  he  does,  to  strains  of  a 
higher  mood,  the  deeds  of  his  countrymen,  and  the  un- 
described  beauties  of  his  native  land  afford  him  many  a 
rich  subject,  and  he  may  deck  the  altar  of  his  country's 
glory  with  the  garlands  of  his  taste  and  fancy.* 

How  dangerous  a  gift  is  the  power  of  ridicule  !  It  is 
potent  to  unmask  the  pretender  and  to  brand  the  hypo 
crite  ;  yet  how  often  has  it  dissipated  those  gay  illusions 
which  beguile  the  rough  path  of  life — how  often  has  it 
chilled  the  glow  of  genius  and  invention — how  often, 
at  its  dread  presence,  have  the  honest  boasts  of  patriot 
ism,  the  warm  expression  of  piety,  the  generous  purpose 
of  beneficence,  faltered  on  the  lips  and  died  away  in  the 
heart ! 

This  colony  was  very  early  separated  from  its  mother 
country,  and  grew  up  into  wealth  and  importance  under 
the  influence  of  English  laws  and  education.  During 
the  forty  years  for  which  it  remained  under  the  Dutch 
government  it  was  too  insignificant  to  attract  much  of  the 
attention  or  of  the  talents  of  Holland,  then  engaged  in 
struggling  for  existence,  against  the  ambition  of  France 
and  the  jealousy  of  England.  But  the  last  Dutch  go 
vernor,  Petrus  Stuyvesant,  who  was  the  governor-ge 
neral  of  the  Dutch  American  possessions,  was  no  com- 

*  To  those  who  judge  of  "W.  Irving's  powers  solely  from  his 
satirical  and  ludicrous  compositions,  this  may  seem  an  exaggerated 
compliment.  But  he  has  given  some  samples,  too  few  and  too  short  I 
confess,  of  what  he  is  able  to  effect  on  these  topics  in  his  graver  and 
purer  style. 

[The  above  note  was  written  and  first  published  about  fourteen 
years  ago.  It  is  retained  in  the  present  edition  because  I  feel  proud 
that  my  judgment  of  the  graver  talent  of  the  author  of  Knickerbocker 
has  been  confirmed  again  and  again,  and  above  all  by  the  Life  of 
Columbus. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  65 

mon  man.  He  had  served  with  reputation  in  the  wars 
of  the  United  Provinces ;  and  in  the  history  of  his  ad 
ministration  in  this  country,  he  appears  as  a  resolute  and 
intrepid  veteran,  and  a  vigilant,  sagacious  politician. 

From  16747  when  this  province  was  finally  ceded  by 
treaty  to  Great  Britain,  until  1780,  when  the  United  Pro 
vinces  arrayed  themselves  in  our  aid  in  the  war  of  Inde 
pendence,  New- York  had  little  direct  communication  with 
Holland.  The  only  intercourse  then  kept  up,  was  by 
occasional  emigrations,  and  by  a  regular  succession  of 
clergy  educated  in  the  Dutch  universities,  to  whom  New- 
York  was  doubtless  indebted  for  most  of  the  little  learn 
ing  which  was  thinly  scattered  over  it  during  its  colonial 
government.  But  as  soon  as  America  assumed  her  rank 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  our  former  ties  of  friend 
ship  and  affinity  were  renewed.  From  the  first  dawn  of 
the  revolution,  popular  feeling  in  the  United  Netherlands 
began  to  run  strongly  in  our  favour ;  and  although  vari 
ous  circumstances  for  some  time  delayed  their  formal  re 
cognition  of  our  independence,  we  looked  thither  from  the 
first  for  the  sinews  of  war. 

Amongst  those  European  friends  of  liberty  who  en 
gaged  most  ardently  in  the  cause  of  American  Indepen 
dence,  and  contributed  most  effectually  towards  its  final 
success,  must  be  named  the  late  Professor  Luzac,  of  Ley- 
den  ;  who,  though  long  esteemed  and  loved  by  several  of 
our  greatest  men,  is  little  known  among  us,  and  has  never 
received  from  the  people  of  this  country  the  honour  justly 
due  to  his  disinterested  attachment,  his  zeal,  and  his  im 
portant  services. 

John  Luzac  was  born  at  Leyden  in  1746.  He  was  a 
son  of  the  teamed  printer  of  the  same  name,  who  esta 
blished  and  for  many  years  published  the  celebrated  Ley- 


66 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 


den  Gazette.  He  completed  his  course  of  study  at  the 
university  of  his  native  town  with  much  reputation,  and 
was  particularly  distinguished  for  his  acquirements  in  the 
mathematics  and  the  learned  languages.  He  then  ap 
plied  himself  to  the  law  as  his  future  profession,  and  com 
menced  his  career  at  the  bar  with  the  most  brilliant  pro 
mise.  But  after  some  time,  he  was  induced  to  relinquish 
these  prospects  in  order  to  take  charge  of  the  Leyden  Ga 
zette,  This  journal,  under  his  care,  soon  became  equally 
celebrated  for  the  elegance  of  its  style,  the  accuracy  of  its 
information,  and  for  the  comprehension,  penetration,  bold 
ness,  and  correctness  of  its  political  views.  There  is  not 
at  this  day  any  publication  here  or  abroad  which  affords 
an  exact  parallel  to  this  gazette,  either  as  it  respects  ex 
tent  of  circulation  or  influence  upon  public  opinion.  Most 
of  the  presses  of  the  continent  were  then  under  a  rigid 
censorship,  and  had  entirely  forfeited  public  confidence 
on  all,  political  siiujeCiS.,  This  paper,  issuing  frcm  a,  freo 
country,  the  very  centre  of  political  and  commercial  in 
formation,  and  written  in  French,  the  universal  language 
of  all  who  then  aspired  to  speak  or  write  on  political  mat 
ters,  acquired  a  reputation  for  extent  and  accuracy  of 
knowledge  and  independence  of  opinion,  which,  without 
the  parade  of  literary  pretension,  gave  it  something  of  the 
same  kind  of  rank  held  at  present  by  the  abler  British 
reviews ;  while  its  circulation  was  far  more  general  and 
extensive.  It  was  in  fact  the  general  continental  and  di 
plomatic  journal.  There  was  not  an  ambassador  nor  a 
statesman  in  Europe  who  was  not  in  the  habit  of  reading 
it;  and  it  has  been  said  that  it  was  regularly  translated 
at  Constantinople  for  the  use  of  the  Divan.  Its  files  are 
still  frequently  referred  to  as  affording  the  most  authentic 
and  ample  materials  of  modern  European  history.  From 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  67 

1770,  the  younger  Luzac  was  the  sole  writer  of  the  edito 
rial  part  of  this  journal,  and  without  solicitation  or  the 
countenance  of  government,  he  enlisted  all  his  talents 
and  information  on  the  side  of  American  freedom. 

The  effects  of  his  writings  on  this  subject,  upon  the 
opinions  of  the  continent,  were,  of  course,  gradual;  but 
they  were  very  powerful,  and  they  were  acknowledged 
and  repaid  by  the  friendship  of  Franklin,  Adams,  and 
Jefferson,  as  well  as  of  the  other  official  representatives  of 
our  government  at  the  several  European  courts. 

After  our  independence  was  acknowledged,  he  engaged 
with  warmth  in  supporting  against  encroachment  the  an 
cient  constitutions,  under  which  Holland  had  enjoyed  so 
much  prosperity.  In  consequence  of  this  he  was  exposed 
to  much  obloquy  and  persecution.  But  his  private  life  was 
irreproachable,  and  as  a  politician  he  was  incorruptible  and 
inflexible.  He  had  no  personal  animosities  or  selfish 
views.  If  he  was  sometimes  animated,  and  even  harsh 
in  his  censure,  it  always  arose  from  "  the  strong  antipathy 
of  good  to  bad ;"  never  irom  private  feeling;  for  he  had  no 
enemies  but  those  of  his  country  and  of  virtue. 

His  political  zeal  never  interrupted  his  literary  labours. 
He  was  elected  to  two  separate  chairs  in  the  university, 
and  filled  with  ability  the  professorship  of  history,  and  that 
of  Greek  literature.  In  the  latter  of  these  he  proved  him 
self  worthy  to  be  the  successor  of  the  laborious  and  inge 
nious  Valckenaer,  of  whose  posthumous  works  he  pub 
lished  an  edition,  to  which  he  afterwards  added  an  original 
work  of  his  own,  entitled  Lectiones  Atticce,  written  in 
the  same  spirit  of  philosophical  criticism.  Finally  he  was 
appointed  Rector  or  President  of  the  University. 

On  his  inauguration  as  professor,  he  delivered  an  ora 
tion  on  the  civic  character  of  Socrates, — "  de  Socrate  cive;" 


68  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

and  another  on  his  installation  as  rector  "  de  Eruditione 
altrice  virtutis  civilis,  presertim  in  civitate  libera,"  on  the 
influence  of  literature  on  public  virtue.  Both  of  these 
orations  are  very  remarkable  for  their  sound  and  stern 
morality,  as  well  as  for  their  high  and  truly  Roman  spirit 
of  liberty,  and  the  courage  with  which  he  stigmatizes  alike 
the  tyranny  of  the  many  and  the  few.  To  these  dis 
courses  he  prefixed  a  long  prefatory  dedication,  addressed 
to  his  friend  John  Adams,  at  that  time  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States.  It  is  distinguished,  among  other 
things,  for  a  most  luminous  eulogy  on  the  then  recently 
adopted  constitution  of  the  United  States,  In  this  the 
author  sums  up  in  Ciceronian  latinity.  all  the  prominent 
and  peculiar  features  of  our  federal  government,  touches, 
with  acuteness  and  foresight,  on  the  several  dangers  to 
which  it  is  exposed,  and  finally  expresses  his  confident 
reliance  on  its  power  to  ward  off  those  ills  to  which  his 
own  country  had  fallen  a  prey.  The  merit  of  this  dis 
cussion  is  the  more  conspicuous,  from  its  contrast  to  the 
perplexity  and  confusion  which  surround  the  best  informed 
European  politicians  in  all  their  speculations  on  our  con 
stitutions,  and  particularly  on  the  division  of  power  be 
tween  the  general  and  state  governments. 

After  alluding  with  undissembled  satisfaction  to  some 
literary  honours  he  had  received  from  America,  and  to 
his  personal  friendship  with  Adams  and  Jefferson,  Luzac 
adds,  that  he  recollects,  with  pride,  that  he  had  been  in 
vited  by  them,  and  almost  persuaded,  to  associate  his  for 
tunes,  under  their  auspices,  with  those  of  the  American 
republic,  which,  says  he,  had  I  done  eight  years  ago — 
and  then,  as  if  overpowered  with  the  recollections  of  the 
recent  discords  of  his  own  country,  breaks  off  with  "  sed 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  69 

quid  ego  tecum  de  nostris  Batavorom  per  sedecem  annos 
temporibus  atque  fatis."* 

To  the  soundest  philosophy  and  the  most  various 
knowledge,  Luzac  added  a  simplicity  and  an  amenity  of 
disposition  and  manners  that  gave  great  interest  to  his 
character  and  conversation.  One  of  his  biographers,  who 
had  been  associated  with  him  in  his  learned  labours  and 
in  his  political  persecution,  observes  of  him,  "  I  knew  the 
whole  charm  of  his  conversation ;  I  sometimes  fancied 
myself  in  the  presence  of  one  of  the  sages  of  antiquity.  I 
could  then  forget  my  exile  and  proscription,  and  felt  all 
my  severe  losses  mitigated." 

His  old  age  was  honourable  and  peaceful.  He  filled 
his  high  literary  offices  for  many  years,  during  which  he 
kept  up  a  constant  correspondence  with  several  of  the 
most  learned  men  of  the  United  States,  and  had  the  sa 
tisfaction  of  assisting,  in  various  ways,  the  progress  of 
learning  in  America.  In  1807,  he  was  killed  in  the  ter 
rible  explosion  that  destroyed  a  great  part  of  the  city  of 
Leyden.t 

History  derives  more  than  half  its  value  from  the  mo 
ral  parallels  and  contrasts  which  it  suggests.  It  is  a  sin 
gular  coincidence  of  this  sort,  that  between  the  years  1682 
and  1 688,  at  the  very  time  that  William  Perm,  the  gen 
tlest  and  purest  of  all  rulers,  was  rendering  his  name  for 
ever  illustrious,  by  establishing,  in  America,  a  refuge  for 
the  wretched  and  oppressed  of  the  whole  earth,  Louis 
XIV.,  one  of  the  most  gorgeous  and  heartless  of  sove- 

*  Luzac,  Orationes,  4to.  Lugd.  Bat.  1795. 

f  For  the  above  facts,  see  Luzac's  Opuscula,  and  an  account  of  hi* 
life  originally  printed  at  Paris,  in  the  Journal  de  V Empire,  in  1807;  a 
translation  of  which  is  published  in  the  Boston  Anthology,  for  October, 
1809. 

P 


70  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

reigns,  was  delivering  up  three  hundred  thousand  fami 
lies  of  his  protestant  subjects  to  the  atrocious  tyranny  of 
the  fanatical  Le  Tellier,  and  the  sanguinary  Louvois ; 
and  by  his  ambition  of  universal  empire  abroad,  and  his 
bigotry  and  ostentation  at  home,  was  preparing  for 
France  those  calamities  that  have  since  fallen  upon  her. 
The  Huguenots  were  the  most  moral,  industrious,  and 
intelligent  part  of  the  French  population,  and  when  they 
were  expelled  from  their  native  country,  they  enriched 
all  Europe  with  the  commerce  and  arts  of  France.  Many 
of  the  more  enterprising  of  them,  finding  themselves  shut 
out,  by  the  narrow  policy  of  the  French  court,  from  Lou 
isiana,  where  they  had  proposed  to  found  a  colony,  turned 
their  course  to  New- York  and  to  South  Carolina,  where 
they  soon  melted  into  the  mass  of  the  population. 

Certainly  we  cannot  wish  to  see  perpetuated  among  us 
the  old  Asiatic  and  European  notions  of  indelible  heredi 
tary  excellence :  equally  wild  are  those  theories  of  a  fan 
tastical  philosophy,  which  would  resolve  all  the  intellec 
tual  and  moral  qualities  of  man  into  accidental  physical 
causes.  But  surely  there  is  a  point  where  good  feeling 
and  sound  philosophy  can  meet,  arid  agree  in  ascribing 
the  best  parts  of  our  character  to  the  moral  influence  of  a 
virtuous  and  intelligent  ancestry. 

Considering  the  subject  in  this  light,  we  may  well  look 
back,  with  pride,  to  our  Huguenot  forefathers.  The  mo 
dern  historians  of  France  have  rarely  done  them  full  jus 
tice.  The  decline  which  the  loss  of  their  industry  and 
arts  caused  in  the  commerce  of  their  own  country,  and 
the  sudden  increase  of  wealth  and  power  which  England 
and  Holland  derived  from  th£rn,  are  sufficient  proofs  that 
their  general  character  was  such  as  I  have  described. 


HTSTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  71 

Nor  are  they  to  be  regarded  solely  as  prosperous  mer 
chants,  and  laborious  and  frugal  artizans. 

The  French  character  never  appeared  with  more  true 
lustre  than  it  did  in  the  elder  Protestants.  •  Without 
stopping  to  expatiate  in  the  praise  of  their  divines  and 
scholars,  Calvin,  Beza,  Salmasius,  and  the  younger  Sca- 
liger;  Claude,  Jurieu,  Amylraut,  and  Saurin,  nor  on 
those  of  Sully,  the  brave,  the  wise,  the  incorruptible,  the 
patriotic  ;  I  shall  only  observe,  that  though  his  own  coun 
trymen  have  been  negligent  of  his  glory,  and  rather 
choose  to  rest  the  fame  of  French  chivalry  on  their  Du- 
nois,  their  Bayard,  their  Du  Guesclein,  and  their  Cril- 
lon,  we  may  search  their  history  in  vain  for  a  parallel  to 
that  beautiful  union  of  the  intrepid  soldier  with  the  pro 
found  scholar,  of  the  adroit  politician  with  the  man  of 
unbending  principle,  of  the  rigid  moralist  and  the  ac 
complished  gentleman,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  life  of 
the  Huguenot  chief,  Mornai  Du  Plessis.* 

Many  of  those  who  emigrated  to  this  country,  after  the 
revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  were  the  companions, 
the  sons,  or  the  disciples  of  these  men,  and  they  brought 
hither  a  most  valuable  accession  of  intelligence,  knowl 
edge,  and  enterprise. 

From  that  time,  political  circumstances  cut  us  off  from 
all  further  intercourse  with  France,  until  the  period  of 
our  revolution.  There  are,  indeed,  in  the  history  of 
Louisiana  and  of  Canada,  some  fine  incidents  of  mag 
nanimity,  courage,  and  philantnropy,  honourable  to  the 
French  character.  On  these  I  could  dilate  with  pleasure ; 

*  Du  Plessis  is  very  conspicuous  in  all  the  histories  and  memoirs  of 
his  time  ;  but  the  best  account  of  his  private  character  is,  "Crusii  Sin- 
gularia  Plessiaca,  seu  memorabilia  de  vita  et  meritis  Philippi  Mornoei 
de  Plessis."  8vo.  Hamburg,  1724. 


72  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

were  it  not  that  I  have  already  expatiated  far  beyond  the 
bounds  I  had  prescribed  to  myself. 

But  I  should  do  injustice  to  the  gratitude  of  my  coun 
try,  if,  in  •commemorating  her  benefactors,  I  should  omit 
to  pay  some  honour  to  the  memory  of  Louis  XVI.  Our 
distance  from  the  factions,  animosities,  and  interests  of 
Europe,  enables  us  to  place  ourselves,  as  it  were,  in  the 
situation  of  posterity ;  and  this  republic  is  as  yet  the  only 
land  in  which  that  much  injured  sovereign  can  receive 
an  honest  and  unprejudiced  eulogium.  Let  us  then  lose 
no  opportunity  of  anticipating  the  justtee  of  history 
towards  the  man,  who,  in  the  words  of  our  old  congress, 
"was  raised  up  by  a  gracious  Providence  to  be  our 
friend,"  and  who,  as  the  same  venerated  body  repeated  at 
the  peace  of  1783,  "enabled  us  to  close  the  war  on  an 
honourable  and  firm  foundation,  in  freedom,  safety,  and 
independence." 

Indeed,  it  is  impossible  to  express  the  weight  of  our 
obligations  to  him,  better  or  more  strongly  than  in  the 
very  words  of  the  men  of  the  revolution.  In  a  memora 
ble  and  eloquent  state-paper,  written  by  John  Dickinson, 
and  signed  as  President  by  John  Jay,  addressed  by  the 
unanimous  consent  of  congress  to  the  several  states,  they 
thus  speak:  "The  corjduct  of  our  good  and  great  ally 
towards  us,  has  so  fully  manifested  his  sincerity  arid  kind 
ness,  as  to  excite  on  our  parts,  corresponding  sentiments 
of  confidence  and  affection.  Observing  the  interests  of 
his  kingdom  to  be  connected  with  those  of  America,  and 
the  combination  of  both  clearly  to  coincide  with  the  be- 
nifioent  designs  of  the  Author  of  nature,  who  unquestion 
ably  intended  men  to  partake  of  certain  rights  and  por 
tions  of  happiness,  his  majesty  perceived  the  attainment 
of  these  views  to  be  founded  on  the  single  proposition  of 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  73 

a  separation  between  America  and  Great  Britain.  The 
resentment  and  confusion  of  your  enemies,  will  point  out 
to  you  the  ideas  you  should  entertain  of  the  magnanimi 
ty  and  consummate  wisdom  of  his  most  Christian  Ma 
jesty  on  this  occasion.  They  perceive,  that  selecting  this 
grand  and  just  idea  from  all  those  specious  ones  that 
might  have  confused  or  misled  inferior  judgment  and 
virtue  ;  and,  satisfied  with  the  advantage  that  must  re 
sult  from  that  event  alone,  he  has  cemented  the  harmony 
between  himself  and  these  states,  not  only  by  establish 
ing  a  reciprocity  of  benefits,  but  by  eradicating  every 
cause  of  jealousy  or  suspicion.  They  also  perceive,  with 
similar  emotions,  that  the  moderation  of  our  ally,  in  not 
desiring  an  acquisition  of  dominion  on  this  continent,  or 
an  exclusion  of  other  nations  from  a  share  of  its  com 
mercial  ad  ventages,  has  given  no  alarm  to  those  nations, 
but  has,  in  fact,  interested  them  in  the  accomplishment 
of  his  generous  undertaking,"* 

Nor  is  there  any  thing  in  the  after-life  of  Louis  to  in 
duce  republicans  to  revoke  these  praises. 

The  French  revolution  has  not  yet  found  an  historian 
uniting  entire  freedom  from  the  influence  of  party  zeal 
and  prejudice  to  true  feeling,  commanding  talents  and 
extended  views.  When  hereafter  its  Tacitus  shall  arise, 
what  subjects  will  it  afford  for  his  philosophy  and  for  his 
eloquence  !  Virtue  and  vice  mixed  in  mad  confusion  ; 
the  basest  passions  and  the  noblest  feelings,  on  all  sides, 
and  often  in  the  same  breast,  struggling  together  for  the 
mastery. — France  made  glorious  in  a  thousand  hard- 
fought  fields  by  the  universal  and  unrivalled  valour  of 


*  "  Address  of  Congress  on  the  present  situation  of  affairs,"  26th  of 
May.  1779.    Dickinson's  Political  works,  II.  53; 


74 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 


Frenchmen — France  rendered  up  a  trembling1  victim  to 
tyrant  after  tyrant,  by  the  universal  cowardice  of  French 
men. — The  female  character  in  its  greatest  elevation  and 
in  its  deepest  depravity — Woman,  now  dreadful  with 
fiend-like  intelligence  and  malignity,  and  now,  exalted 
into  more  than  Roman  heroism  by  higher  principles  than 
Pagan  antiquity  ever  knew. 

Throughout  the  long  and  dreadful  narrative,  the  his 
torian  will  never  lose  sight  of  the  meek  and  steady  virtues 
of  the  patriot  king.  He  will  describe  him.  in  early 
youth,  in  the  midst  of  a  corrupt  and  sensual  court,  form 
ing  his  conscience  and  regulating  his  life  by  the  mild 
and  holy  precepts  of  Fenelon  ;*  surrounded  by  bigoted  or 
heartless  politicians,  yet  glowing  with  affection  for  his 
people,  and  eagerly  co-operating  with  the  virtuous  Tur- 
got  and  other  enlightened  friends  of  freedom  in  reform 
ing  old  abuses  and  lightening  the  burthen  of  his  sub 
jects.  He  will  relate,  that  he  staked  every  thing  on 
this  vast  and  bold  experiment  of  regulated  liberty  and 
representative  government ;  and  at  last  voluntarily  offer 
ed  up  his  life  in  that  cause  rather  than  purchase  it  at  the 
expense  of  the  blood  of  his  countrymen.  He  will  pour- 
tray  him,  as  the  danger  thickened,  summoning  all  his 
virtues  to  his  heart,  and  rising  greater  and  greater  in  the 
hour  of  calamity. 

Finally,  the  historian  will  paint  the  sorrows  and  the 
consolations  of  his  prison — or  rather,  he  will  tell  that 
touching  story  in  the  plain  words  of  those  who  saw  and 
loved  him  to  the  last:t  and  then,  as  he  follows  the  king 

*The  "Directions  for  the  conscience  of  a  King,"  was  the  favourite 
book  of  Louis  XVI. 
t  Malesherbes,  Clery,  Abbe  Edgeworth,  and  others. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  75 

to  the  place  of  his  death,  accompanied  by  his  last  and 
faithful  friend,  the  venerable  Abbe  Edgeworth,  he  will 
insensibly  catch  that  good  man's  pious  enthusiasm,  and 
with  him,  forgetting  the  wrongs  of  the  patriot  and  tlie 
sorrows  of  the  husband  and  the  father,  in  his  veneration 
of  the  saint  and  the  martyr,  he  will  exclaim  at  the  foot 
of  the  scaffold,  "  Go,  Son  of  St.  Louis,  ascend  to 
Heaven."  "  Montez.  Fils  de  iSt.  Louis,  tnonlez  an 
del." 

As  I  have  advanced,  I  find  my  subject  widening  upon 
me  on  every  side.  It  is  true  that  few  European  names 
are  to  be  found  to  which  we  owe  so  large  a  debt  of  public 
gratitude,  as  we  do  to  those  characters  of  surpassing  ex 
cellence,  I  have  already  attempted  to  portray. 

Yet  were  I  to  add  to  this  catalogue  of  the  illustrious 
dead,  the  names  of  our  still  living  European  benefactors 
I  should  find  materials  for  volumes.  I  might  speak  of 
Lafayette,  the  model  of  republican  chivalry,  the  hero  of 
three  revolutions,  of  two  centuries,  and  of  both  hemis 
pheres.  Yet  why  should  I  now  add  my  feeble  voice  to 
the  full  chorus  of  a  nation's  praise?  I  might  speak  also 
of  other  excellent  men  abroad,  who  have  largely  contri 
buted  to  promote  the  science,  the  morals,  the  liberties  of 
this  land  as  dear  to  them  as  their  own. 

Indeed,  in  later  years,  there  is  scarce  a  single  individu 
al  who  has  obtained  a  place  in  history,  by  his  virtues  as 
well  as  by  his  talents,  who  has  not,  at  some  period  of 
his  life,  been  ambitious  of  deserving  the  esteem  of  the 
American  people.  In  this  point  of  view,  our  history  is 
rich  indeed.  It  has  not,  like  the  history  of  the  old  world, 
the  charm  of  classical  or  romantic  associations,  and  it 


76  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

bends  itself  with  difficulty  and  without  grace,  to  the  pur 
poses  of  poetry  and  fiction.  But  in  ethical  instruction,  in 
moral  dignity,  it  has  no  equal. 

The  study  of  the  history  of  most  other  nations,  fills 
the  mind  with  sentiments  not  unlike  those  which  the 
American  traveller  feels  on  entering  the  venerable  and 
lofty  cathedral  of  some  proud  old  city  of  Europe.  Its 
solemn  grandeur,  its  vastness,  its  obscurity,  strike  awe  to 
his  heart.  From  the  richly  painted  windows,  filled  with 
sacred  emblems  and  strange  antique  forms,  a  dim  reli 
gious  light  falls  around.  A  thousand  recollections  of  ro 
mance  and  poetry,  and  legendary  story,  come  thronging 
in  upon  him.  He  is  surrounded  by  the  tombs  of  the 
mighty  dead,  rich  with  the  labours  of  ancient  art,  and 
emblazoned  with  the  pomp  of  heraldry. 

What  names  does  he  read  upon  them?  Those  of 
princes  and  nobles  Avho  are  now  remembered  only  for 
their  vices:  and  of  sovereigns,  at  whose  death  no  tears 
were  shed,  and  whose  memories  lived  not  an  hour  in  the 
affections  of  their  people.  There,  too,  he  sees  other 
names,  long  familiar  to  him  for  their  guilty  or  ambigu 
ous  fame.  There  rest,  the  blood-stained  soldier  of  for 
tune — the  orator,  who  was  ever  the  ready  apologist  of 
tyranny — great  scholars,  who  were  the  pensioned  flat 
terers  of  power — and  poets,  who  profaned  the  high  gift 
of  genius,  to  pamper  the  vices  of  a  corrupted  court. 

Our  own  history,  on  the  contrary,  like  that  poetical 
temple  of  fame,  reared  by  the  imagination  of  Chaucer, 
and  decorated  by  the  taste  of  Pope,  is  almost  exclusively 
dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  truly  great.  Or  rather, 
like  the  Pantheon  of  Rome,  it  stands  in  calm  and  severe 
beauty  amid  the  ruins  of  ancient  magnificence  and  4(  the 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  77 

toys  of  modern  state."  Within,  no  idle  ornament  en 
cumbers  its  bold  simplicity.  The  pure  light  of  heaven 
enters  from  above  and  sheds  an  equal  and  serene  ra 
diance  around.  As  the  eye  wanders  about  its  extent,  it 
beholds  the  unadorned  monuments  of  brave  and  good 
men  who  have  greatly  bled  or  toiled  for  their  country,  or 
it  rests  on  votive  tablets  inscribed  with  the  names  of  the 
best  benefactors  of  mankind. 

Hie  manus,  ob  patriam  pugnando,  volnera  passi, 
duique  sacerdotes  casti,  dum  vita  manebat, 
Ctuique  pii  rates,  et  Phoeb*o  digna  locuti, 
Inventas  attt  qui  vitam  excoluere  per  artes, 
duique  sui  memores,  alios  fecere  merendo.* 

Doubtless,  this  is  a  subject  upon  which  we  may  be 
justly  proud.  But  there  is  another  consideration,  which, 
if  it  did  not  naturally  arise  of  itself,  would  be  pressed 
upon  us  by  the  taunts  of  European  criticism. 

What  has  this  nation  done  to  repay  the  world  for  the 
benefits  we  have  received  from  others  ?  We  have  been 
repeatedly  told,  and  sometimes,  too,  in  a  tone  of  affected 
impartiality,  that  the  highest  praise  which  can  fairly  be 
given  to  the  American  mind,  is  that  of  possessing  an  en 
lightened  selfishness;  that  if  the  philosophy  and  talents 
of  this  country,  with  all  their  effects,  were  for  ever  swept 
into  oblivion,  the  loss  would  be  felt  only  by  ourselves ; 
and  that  if  to  the  accuracy  of  this  general  charge,  the 

*Patriots  are  here,  in  Freedom's  battles  slain, 
Priests,  whose  long  lives  were  closed  without  a  stain, 
Bards  worthy  him  who  breathed  the  the  poet's  mind, 
Founders  of  arts  that  dignify  mankind, 
And  lovers  of  our  race,  whose  labours  gave 
Their  names  a  memory  that  defies  the  grave. 

VIRGIL— From  the  MS.  of  Bryant. 


78  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

labours  of  Franklin  present  an  illustrious,  it  is  still  but  a 
solitary  exception. 

The  answer  may  be  given,  confidently  and  triumph 
antly.  Without  abandoning  the  fame  of  our  eminent 
men,  whom  Europe  has  been  slow  and  reluctant  to  ho 
nour,  we  would  reply ;  that  the  intellectual  power  of  this 
people  has  exerted  itself  in  conformity  to  the  general  sys 
tem  of  our  institutions  and  mariners ;  and  therefore,  that 
for  the  proof  of  its  existence  and  the  measure  of  its  force, 
we  must  look  not  so  much  to  the  works  of  prominent 
individuals,  as  to  the  great  aggregate  results;  and  if  Eu 
rope  has  hitherto  been  wilfully  blind  to  the  value  of  our 
example  and  the  exploits  of  our  sagacity,  courage,  in 
vention,  and  freedom,  the -blame  must  rest  with  her,  and 
not  with  America. 

Is  it  nothing  for  the  universal  good  of  mankind  to  have 
carried  into  successful  operation  a  system  of  self-govern 
ment,  uniting  personal  liberty,  freedom  of  opinion,  and 
equality  of  rights,  with  national  power  and  dignity ;  such 
as  had  before  existed  only  in  the  Utopian  dreams  of 
philosophers  ?  It  is  nothing,  in  moral  science,  to  have 
anticipated  in  sober  reality,  numerous  plans  of  reform  in 
civil  and  criminal  jurisprudence,  which  are,  but  now, 
received  as  plausible  theories  by  the  politicians  and  eco 
nomists  of  Europe  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  have  been  able  to 
call  forth  on  every  emergency,  either  in  war  or  peace,  a 
body  of  talents  always  equal  to  the  difficulty?  Is  it 
nothing  to  have,  in  less  than  half  a  century,  exceedingly 
improved  the  sciences  of  political  economy,  of  law,  and 
of  medicine,  with  all  their  auxiliary  branches ;  to  have 
enriched  human  knowledge  by  the  accumulation  of  a 
great  mass  of  useful  facts  and  observations,  and  to  have 
augmented  the  power  and  the  comforts  of  civilized  man, 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  79 

by  miracles  of  mechanical  invention  ?  Is  it  nothing  to 
have  given  the  world  examples  of  disinterested  patriot 
ism,  of  political  wisdom,  of  public  virtue ;  of  learning, 
eloquence,  and  valour,  never  exerted  save  for  some  praise 
worthy  end  ?  It  is  sufficient  to  have  briefly  suggested 
these  considerations ;  every  mind  would  anticipate  me 
in  filling  up  the  details. 

No — Land  of  Liberty !  thy  children  have  no  cause  to 
blush  for  thee.  What  though  the  arts  have  reared  few 
monuments  among  us,  and  scarce  a  trace  of  the  Muse's 
footstep  is  found  in  the  paths  of  our  forests,  or  along  the 
banks  of  our  rivers ;  yet  our  soil  has  been  consecrated  by 
the  blood  of  heroes,  and  by  great  and  holy  deeds  of 
peace.  Its  wide  extent  has  become  one  vast  temple  and 
hallowed  asylum,  sanctified  by  the  prayers  and  blessings 
of  the  persecuted  of  every  sect,  and  the  wretched  of  all 
nations. 

Land  of  Refuge — Land  of  Benedictions  !  Those 
prayers  still  arise,  and  they  still  are  heard:  "May  peace 
be  within  thy  walls,  and  plenteousness  within  thy  pala 
ces  !"  "•  May  there  be  no  decay,  no  leading  into  captivi 
ty,  and  no  complaining  in  thy  streets  !"  "  May  truth 
flourish  out  of  the  earth,  and  righteousness  look  down 
from  Heaven." 


APPENDIX 


TO    THE    HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE, 


No.  I  p.  17—20  and  25—27. 

THE  authority  of  Dr.  Robertson,  as  an  historian,  has  been 
impeached  by  various  writers,  and  particularly  by  the  Abbe 
Clavigero,  in  his  history  of  Mexico,  who  charges  him  with 
having,  in  his  account  of  that  country,  misrepresented  some 
points,  and  mistaken  others.  Without  entering  into  this  con 
troversy,  it  is,  I  think,  pretty  evident  that  Dr.  Robertson  al 
ways  writes  for  popular  effect,  and  thus  very  frequently, 
without  any  intention  of  disguising  the  truth,  discolours  it  by 
his  endeavour  to  make  the  narrative  striking  and  picturesque. 

There  is  an  instance  of  this,  which  I  believe  has  never  been 
pointed  out,  and  as  it  has  reference  to  one  of  the  subjects  of 
the  preceding  discourse,  may  be  properly  noticed  in  this  place. 
In  his  account  of  the  banishment  of  Roger  Williams,  (Histo 
ry  of  America,  Book  X.)  he  states  that  "  Williams  having 
conceived  an  antipathy  to  the  cross  of  St.  George  in  the  stand 
ard  of  England,  declaimed  against  it  with  so  much  vehe 
mence  as  a  relic  of  superstition  and  idolatry  which  ought  not 
to  be  retained  among  a  people  so  pure  and  sanctified,  that  En- 
dicott,  one  of  the  members  of  the  Court  of  Assistants,  pub 
licly  cut  the  cross  from  the  ensign  displayed  before  the  Gover 
nor's  gate.  This  frivolous  matter  interested  and  divided  the 
colony.  After  a  long  controversy,  carried  on  by  both  parties 
with  that  heat  and  zeal  which  in  trivial  disputes  supply  the 
want  of  argument,  the  contest  was  terminated  by  a  compro 
mise.  The  cross  was  retained  in  the  ensigns  of  courts  and 

a 


04  APPENDIX. 

ships,  but  erased  from  the  colours  of  militia,  Williams,  on 
account  of  this,  as  well  as  of  some  other  doctrines  deemed 
unsound,  was  banished  out  of  the  colony."  It  is  indeed  true 
that  an  absurd  controversy,  such  as  Dr.  Robertson  here  des 
cribes,  existed  about  this  period.  But  it  formed  no  part  what 
ever  of  the  grounds  on  which  Williams  was  banished,  and 
instead  of  his  being,  as  here  represented,  the  hero  of  the  con 
troversy,  Cotton  Mather  expressly  states,  that  "  in  this  differ 
ence  he  (Williams)  was  indeed  but  obliquely  and  remotely 
concerned  !" — Magnalia  Americana,  Book  VII.  Chap.  9, 
The  other  chief  authorities,  on  Williams'  history,  are  silent  on 
the  subject.  The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  this  objection  to  the 
flag  was  rather  an  inference  which  Endicott  drew  from  his 
pastor's  discourses,  than  any  formal  discussion  of  the  subject 
by  Williams.  Endicott  was  a  man  of  some  talents,  but  very 
extravagant  in  many  of  his  notions,  and  likely  to  run  into 
any  violence  of  this  sort,  of  his  own  head.  It  was  he,  who 
several  years  after,  made  a  public  declaration  against  wigs, 
"  as  a  thing  uncivil  and  unmanly,  whereby  men  do  deform 
themselves,  and  offend  sober  and  modest  persons,  and  do  cor 
rupt  good  manners."  The  story  of  the  colours  is  amusing, 
and  Robertson  finding  it  told  in  connexion  with  the  rest  of 
Roger  Williams'  history,  without  stopping,  as  a  philosophical 
historian  should  have  done,  to  investigate  the  character  of 
this  father  of  religious  liberty,  willingly  took  the  opportuni 
ty  of  enlivening  his  pages  with  a  pleasant  anecdote. 

His  building  up  the  charge  against  Las  Casas,  of  introdu 
cing  negro  slavery  into  America,  upon  a  sort  of  obiter  dictum 
of  Herrera,  probably  arose  from  the  same  cause.  Las  Ca- 
sas's  inconsistency  of  character  told  well  in  the  narrative, 
and  gave  the  historian  an  air  of  acute  discrimination ;  so 
that  he  was  willing  to  adopt  the  story,  without  any  very  rigid 
investigation,  and  in  relating  it,  naturally  tinged  it  with  the 
colours  of  his  own  picturesque  imagination. 

Herrera's  words,  are  these : 

"  El  licenciado  Bart,  de  las  Casas  viendoque  sus  concetos 
hallavan  en  todas  partes  dificultad,  y  que  las  opiniones  que 
tenia  por  mucha  familiaridad  que  avia  conseguido  y  gran 


APPENDIX.  83 

credito  con  el  gran  Canciller  no  podian  aver  efeto,  se  bolvio  a 
otros  espedientes,  procurando  que,  a  los  Castellanos  que  vi- 
vian  en  las  Indias,  se  diesse  saca  de  negros,  para  que  con  el- 
los  en  las  grangieras  en  las  minas  fuessen  los  Indios  mas  ali- 
viados :  y  que  se  procurasse  de  levanter  buen  numero  de  la- 
bradores  que  passassen  a  ella  con  ciertas  libertades  y  condi- 
tiones  que  puso." — Herrera,  Historia  de  las  Indias  Occiden- 
tales,  dec.  11.  Z.  2.  cap.  20. 

"  The  licentiate  Bathelemey  Las  Casas,  seeing  that  his  plans 
met  with  difficulties  on  every  side,  and  that  the  expectations 
he  had  founded  on  his  great  intimacy  with  the  Grand  Chan 
cellor,  and  the  high  credit  he  had  with  him,  were  likely  to 
come  to  nothing,  turned  himself  to  other  expedients,  such  as 
the  procuring  for  the  CastiJians  who  resided  in  the  Indies, 
an  importation  of  negroes,  so  that  by  their  help  the  labours 
of  the  Indians,  in  working  the  ground  and  the  mines,  might 
be  alleviated;  and  also  the  procuring  of  a  good  number  of 
labouring  people,  who  should  be  induced  to  emigrate  by  the 
grant  of  certain  liberties  and  privileges,"  &c. 

The  writers  who,  without  direct  reference  to  this  question, 
impeach  the  general  credit  of  Herrera,  are  the  Dutch  historian 
Johannes  De  Laet,  and  his  own  countrymen  Solis  and  Tor- 
quemada.  The  last  is  author  of  the  Monarchia  Indiana,  and 
is  considered  the  most  accurate  writer  that  we  have  on  the 
affairs  of  Spanish  America,  where  he  resided  for  the  greater 
part  of  his  life.  Munoz  also,  in  the  preface  to  his  history  of 
the  New  World,  though  he  palliates  the  crimes  of  his  coun 
trymen,  and  charges  Las  Casas  with  exaggeration  on  the  sub 
ject,  yet  accuses  Herrera  of  relating  doubtful  traditions  as 
certain  facts,  of  writing  with  careless  haste,  and  adding  or 
omitting  according  to  his  own  caprices  or  prejudices. 

I  have  said  in  the  preceding  pages  that  Las  Casas  had  the 
satisfaction  of  having  called  forth  the  testimony  of  the  better 
spirits  of  his  nation  against  persecution  and  bigotry.  The 
chief  names  which  Gregoire  gives,  as  worthy  of  being  thus 
honourably  associated  with  that  of  Las  Casas,  (besides  the 
two  universities  of  Salamanca  and  Alcala  in  their  corporate 
capacities,)  are  Francisco  de  Vittoria,  (a  writer  frequently  cit- 


84  APPENDIX. 

ed  by  Grotius,)  Antonio  Ramirez,  who  publicly  refuted  Se- 
pulveda,  Garces,  Bishop  of  Tlascala,  Avendanno,  who  wrote 
largely  against  slavery,  and  defended  the  cause  of  the  negroes 
as  well  as  of  the  Indians,  and  above  all  the  Dominicans;  Petro 
de  Cordova  and  Antonio  de  Montesino. 

Rise,  Muse  of  history,  lend  your  tuneful  breath — 
These  must  not  sleep  in  darkness  and  in  death. 

While  these  pages  were  printing,  I  have  unexpectedly  met 
with  a  very  strong  corroboration  of  the  facts  stated  by  Gre- 
goire  in  support  of  the  argument-urn  negans,  drawn  from  the 
silence  of  competent  witnesses.  It  is  in  the  review  of  "  Stewart's 
Introduction  to  the  Encyclopedia,"  contained  in  a  late  number 
of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  which  from  the  internal  evidence  af 
forded  by  the  splendour  and  variety  of  its  style,  and  the  remark 
able  knowledge  of  the  history  of  metaphysical,  ethical,  and 
political  science  displayed  in  it,  I  should  assign  to  the  pen  of 
Sir  James  Mackintosh. 

In  vindicating  the  right  of  the  early  writers  on  Inter-nation 
al  Law  to  a  much  higher  rank  than  Mr.  Stewart  has  allowed 
them,  the  reviewer  observes,  "  Francis  de  St.  Victoria  seems 
to  have  been  the  first  man  who  acquired  reputation  by  this 
study.  He  died  a  professor  of  Salamanca,  in  1546.  His 
works  we  never  have  been  able  to  procure.  Of  his  scholar, 
Dominic  Soto,  we  can  speak  with  greater  certainty,  having 
perused  his  work  "  De  Justitia  et  Jure."  His  book,  the  sub 
stance  of  lectures  long  delivered  at  Salamanca,  was  published 
there  in  J460.  It  is  a  work  which  contains  many  symptoms 
of  the  improvements  arising  from  the  revival  of  letters,  which 
had  penetrated  into  the  Spanish  schools.  It  ought  not  to  be 
forgotten,  for  the  honour  of  these  now  forgotten  jurists,  that 
Victoria  condemned  the  wars  then  waged  by  his  countrymen 
against  the  Americans,  under  the  pretext,  or  even  for  the  pur 
pose  of  spreading  Christianity;  and  that  Soto  decided  against 
the  lawfulness  of  enslaving  the  same  unhappy  tribes,  in  a  dis 
pute  on  that  subject  between  Sepulveda  and  Las  Casas,  of 
which  the  decision  was  left  by  the  Emperor  to  him.  What  is 
still  more  remarkable^  Dominic  Soto  was  the  first  writer  who 


APPENDIX.  85 

condemned  the  African  slave  trade,  and  did  honour  to  his 
new  science  by  employing  its  principles  for  the  reprobation 
of  that  system  of  guilt  and  misery  which  his  countrymen 
now  almost  singly  strive  to  prolong.  "  If  the  report,"  says  he, 
"which  has  lately  prevailed,  be  true,  that  Portuguese  traders 
entice  the  wretched  natives  of  Africa  to  the  coast  by  amuse 
ments  and  presents,  and  every  species  of  seduction  and  fraud, 
and  compel  them  to  embark  in  their  ships  as  slaves,  neither 
those  who  have  taken  them,  nor  those  who  buy  them  from  the 
takers,  nor  those  who  possess  them,  can  have  safe  consciences, 
until  they  manumit  these  slaves,  however  unable  they  may  be 
to  pay  ransom. — Soto  de  Justitia  et  Jure." 

Now  it  appears  morally  impossible,  that  a  writer  who  had 
thus  treated  these  two  questions,  of  Indian  and  African  slave 
ry,  and  who  had  been  an  umpire  in  the  controversy  between 
Las  Casas  and  Sepulveda,  should  not  have  made  some  allusion 
to  the  inconsistency  of  Las  Casas,  had  there  been  any  ground 
for  the  charge.  While  on  the  other  hand,  if  Las  Casas,  na 
turally  benevolent,  was  only  misled  "by  the  inconsistency 
natural  to  men  who  hurry  with  headlong  impetuosity  towards 
a  favourite  point,"  as  Dr.  Robertson  supposes,  surely  these 
opinions,  so  decidedly  pronounced  by  an  eminent  jurist  and 
a  warm  partizan  of  his  own  favourite  doctrine,  would  have  in 
stantly  awakened  him  to  a  sense  of  his  error. 

Those  who  are  curious  to  know  more  of  the  details  of  the 
controversy  between  Las  Casas  and  his  opponents,  than  is  to 
be  found  in  the  popular  historians  and  common  biographical 
compilations,  may  consult  Dupin's  Ecclesiastical  History,  un 
der  the  head  Las  Casas,  among  the  writers  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

It  is  a  little  singular  that  the  character  of  Roger  Williams 
should  have  been  exposed  to  the  same  charge  of  inconsistency 
with  that  of  Las  Casas,  and  nearly  on  the  same  sort  of  authori 
ty.  That  laborious  and  judicious  compiler,  Mr.  Chalmers, 
whose  authority,  like  that  of  Herrera,  rests  chiefly  on  his  hav 
ing  had  access  to  many  important  official  documents,  has 
asserted  in  his  Political  Annals,  that  the  toleration  of  Ro 
ger  Williams  did  not  extend  to  Roman  Catholics. 
G* 


86  APPENDIX. 

This  charge  has  been  repeated  by  several  writers,  and  among 
them  by  Mr.  Rawle  in  an  address  to  the  Agricultural  Society 
of  Philadelphia,  soon  after  the  publication  of  the  first  edition 
of  this  discourse.  The  attention  of  Mr.  Rawle  was  drawn  to 
the  subject  by  the  eulogy  which  I  have,  I  think,  correctly, 
bestowed  upon  Roger  Williams.  His  remarks  are  made  in 
the  spirit  of  candour  and  liberality,  and  are  evidently  dictat 
ed  solely  by  a  regard  to  strict  historical  truth.  The  writings 
of  Williams  contain  numerous  passages  which  show  that  not 
only  Roman  Catholics,  but  Jews  and  Mahometans,  were  in 
cluded  in  his  broad  and  liberal  theory  of  toleration — or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  of  religious  liberty.  Still,  however,  if 
as  in  the  case  of  Las  Casas,  the  charge  had  been  made  at  a  later 
period,  it  would  have  been  very  difficult  to  have  refuted  it, 
otherwise  than  by  indirect  and  presumptive  evidence.  For 
tunately  for  the  fame  of  this  truly  great,  though  eccentric  man, 
this  question  was  raised  under  more  favourable  circumstances ; 
and  Mr.  Eddy,  of  Rhode  Island,  undertook  the  investigation 
of  the  subject. 

In  a  very  able  paper  originally  communicated  to  the  New- 
York  Historical  Society,  and  since  published  in  the  appendix 
to  Mr.  Walsh's  "Appeal  from  the  judgment  of  Great  Britain," 
Mr.  Eddy  has  satisfactorily  demonstrated  from  a  minute  ex 
amination  of  the  charters,  journals,  laws,  and  records,  of 
Rhode  Island,  as  well  manuscript  as  printed,  that  the  exception 
of  Roman  Catholics  from  the  general  toleration  of  the  colony, 
formed  no  part  of  Roger  Williams'  system,  nor  did  it  exist 
under  the  original  charter,  or  during  the  lives  of  the  original 
settlers :  but  was  subsequently  introduced  with  a  view  to  ac 
commodate  the  policy  of  the  colony  to  that  of  the  mother 
country,  some  time  after  the  revolution  of  1688.  Williams 
himself  died  in  1682.  Even  this  provision  seems  to  have  been 
mere  matter  of  form,  as  no  penal  law  was  ever  passed,  or  any 
test  or  oath  ever  required. 

No.  II.  p.  23. 

The  conduct  and  avowed  opinions  of  the  Independents, 
when  they  were  in  undisturbed  possession  of  power  in  New- 


APPENDIX.  87 

England,  gives  pretty  strong  proof  that  their  proposition  for 
toleration  in  Old  England,  under  Cromwell's  reign,  was  a  mere 
measure  of  political  management  with  a  view  to  enlist  all  the 
minor  sects  with  whom  they  could  in  any  way  coalesce,  against 
their  rivals  the  Presbyterians.  Nathaniel  Ward,  of  Ipswich, 
famed  in  his  day  as  a  learned  divine,  but  now  better  known  as 
the  author  of  that  whimsical  and  quaint  book,  "  The  Simple 
Cobbler  of  Aggawam,  in  America,"  was  a  very  distinguished 
and  important  man  in  England,  as  well  as  in  Massachusetts. 
He  had  been  bred  a  lawyer,  had  travelled  much,  and  was 
thought  to  be  so  deeply  skilled  in  the  principles  of  general  ju 
risprudence,  that  he  was  employed  to  draw  up  a  code  of  laws 
for  New-England.  Cotton  Mather  calls  him  our  St.  Hilary, 
and  asks  why  he  had  no  statue  erected  to  him.  "  He  was," 
observes  Mather,  "  the  author  of  many  composures  full  of  wit 
and  sense,  among  which,  that  entitled  the  Simple  Cobbler 
(which  demonstrated  him  to  be  a  subtile  statesman)  was  most 
considered."  In  this  "  much  considered  work,"  which  was 
published  in  1647,  Ward  says:  "My  heart  naturally  detests 
toleration  of  divers  religions,  or  of  one  religion  in  segregant 
shapes.  He  that  assents  to  the  last,  if  he  examines  his  heart 
by  day-light,  his  conscience  will  tell  him  he  is  either  an 
atheist,  a  heretic,  or  a  hypocrite.  Poly-piety  is  the  greatest 
impiety  in  the  world.  To  authorize  an  untruth  by  toleration 
of  state,  is  to  build  a  sconce  against  the  walls  of  heaven,  to 
batter  God  out  of  his  chair.  He  that  is  willing  to  tolerate  any 
unsound  opinion,  that  his  own  may  be  tolerated,  though  never 
so  sound,  will  for  a  need  hang  God's  bible  at  the  Devil's  gir 
dle.  It  is  said  that  men  ought  to  have  liberty  of  conscience, 
and  that  it  is  persecution  to  debar  them  of  it.  I  can  rather 
stand  amazed  than  reply  to  this.  It  is  astonishment  to  me, 
that  the  brains  of  men  should  be  parboiled  in  such  impious  ig 
norance.  I  once  lived  in  a  city  where  a  papist  preached  in 
one  church,  a  Lutheran  in  another,  a  Calvinist  in  the  third. 
The  religion  of  that  place  was  motly  and  meagre,  their  affec 
tions  leopard-like." 

The  practice  of  the  Independents  was  very  much  of  a  piece 
with  this  theory.  Poor  Biddle,  the  extravagant  James  Nayler, 
and  the  stout-hearted  John  Lilbourne,  could  tell,  from  bitter 


88  APPENDIX. 

experience,  how  hollow  a  pretence  the  Protector's  zeal  for  to 
leration  was. 

The  ecclesiastical  history  of  New-England  is  full  of  instances 
of  the  church's  borrowing  the  sword  of  the  state,  (to  speak  in 
the  language  of  those  times,)  in  order  to  cut  off  the  hydra'heads 
of  heresy.  The  ordinary  punishment  of  sectaries,  in  Massa 
chusetts,  was  fining  and  banishment;  but  the  Quakers  were 
not  suffered  to  escape  so  easily. 

Cotton  Mather,  (Magnalia,  Book  VII.  chap.  4.)  after  giving 
some  account  of  the  Quakers,  whom  he  calls  "the  worst  of  he 
retics,"  observes,  that  "  The  zeal  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony, 
to  preserve  themselves  from  the  annoyances  of  such  a  blasphe 
mous  and  confused  generation  of  men,  caused  them  to  make 
Sharp  Laws  against  them,  in  hopes  that  the  terror  thereby 
given  to  these  Evil  doers,  would  keep  them  from  any  invasion 
upon  the  colony.  But,  They  must  need  go  whom  the  Devil 
drives;  so  these  Devil-driven  creatures  did  but  the  more  furi 
ously  push  themselves  upon  the  government  for  the  Sharp 
which  had  been  turned  upon  them;  whereupon,  the  govern 
ment  unhappily  proceeded  unto  the  execution  of  the  laws,  in 
scour  ging,  and  then  banishing,  and  (upon  their  mad  return) 
executing  three  or  four  of  the  chief  offenders.  But  they  consi 
dered  these  wretches,  Non  qua  errones,  sed  qua  turbones ." 

"  A  great  clamour  has  been  raised  against  New-England,  for 
their  persecution  of  the  Quakers,  and  if  any  man  will  appear 
in  the  vindication  of  it,  let  him  do  as  he  please:  for  my  part, 
I  will  not."  "Nor,"  saith  this  good-natured  father  of  Ameri 
can  history,  "  do  I  look  upon  hereticide  as  an  evangelical  way 
for  the  extinguishing  of  heresies."  It  is  evident  that  Mather's 
good  feelings  were  at  war  with  his  abstract  doctrines  on  this 
point;  and  he  is,  therefore,  glad  to  find  some  resting  place  half 
way,  and  accordingly  much  approves  of  the  opinion  of  "a 
wise  and  good  counsellor  in  Plymouth,  who  propounded,  that 
a  law  might  be  made  for  the  Quakers  to  have  their  heads 
shaved."  This  idea  seems  to  please  him  the  more,  as  it  af 
fords  him  an  opportunity  of  indulging  himself  in  his  favourite 
amusement  of  punning,  by  gravely  remarking,  "  this  punish 
ment  I  confess  was  in  some  sort  capital,  but  it  would  have 
been  the  best  remedy  for  them:  it  would  have  both  shamed 


APPENDIX.  BSf 

and  cured  them."  And  afterwards  he  adds,  that  "  Perhaps  the 
punishment  which  A.  Gellius  reports  the  Romans  on  certain 
special  occasions  used  upon  their  soldiers,  namely,  to  let  'em 
blood,  would  have  been  very  agreeable  for  these  Quakers." 

Mather  wrote  about  sixty  years  after  these  persecutions, 
when  the  fiery  spirit  of  the  first  Independents  had  much  sub 
sided,  but  before  the  true  principles  of  religious  liberty  were 
received,  or,  indeed,  distinctly  understood.  He  himself  seems 
to  be  decidedly  in  the  Transition  class,  as  the  geologists  speak. 

In  coarse  and  violent  language,  the  Quakers  were  not  a  jot 
behind  their  antagonists.  George  Fox  and  John  Bunyeat  styled 
Roger  Williams  a  "  New-England  firebrand,"  and  called  his 
tracts  "  lying,  slanderous,  blasphemous  books."  Those  great 
divines,  Owen  and  Baxter,  fared  still  worse  in  their  contro 
versy  with  the  Quakers:  they  were  called  " viper-grinning 
dogs,  raggedtorn  threadbare  tatter  demalions,  blind  moles, 
tinkers,  cowdung,  gimcracks,  and  whirlygigs." 

Who  can  look  back  upon  these  things,  without  feelings  of 
gratitude  towards  the  fathers  of  our  religious  liberty?  A  legal 
toleration  was  the  first  step,  and  this  has  gradually  produced 
the  toleration  of  private  judgment.  Yet,  we  have  still  some 
thing  to  learn  in  the  lesson  of  charity ;  for  it  is  a  difficult  thing 
to  be  liberal  without  being  latitudinarian,  to  be  firm  in  our  own 
faith  and  charitable  towards  that  of  others.  But  whatever 
progress  society  makes  in  this  way  is  certain.  We  now  find  it 
so  difficult  to  realize  these  delusions  of  our  ancestors,  that  we 
are  often  disposed  to  underrate  their  other  virtues  and  talents. 
I  have  often  admired  Dugald  Stewart's  beautiful  illustration  of 
that  remarkable  fact  in  the  history  of  our  prejudices,  that  as 
soon  as  the  film  falls  from  the  intellectual  eye,  we  lose  all  re 
collection  of  our  former  blindness.  "Like  the  fantastic  and 
giant  shapes,"  says  he,  "  which  in  a  thick  fog  the  imagination 
lends  to  a  block  of  stone,  or  to  the  stump  of  a  tree,  they  pro 
duce,  while  the  illusion  lasts,  the  same  effects  with  truths  and 
realities;  but  the  moment  the  eye  has  caught  the  exact  form 
and  dimensions  of  its  object,  the  spell  is  broken  for  ever;  nor 
can  any  effort  of  thought  again  conjure  up  the  spectres  which 
have  vanished." 


90  APPENDIX. 

No.  III.  p.  55. 

On  turning  to  D'Alembert 's  Eloge  de  Bossuet,  I  find  that  he 
defends  that  eloquent  Prelate  from  the  charge  of  supporting 
and  encouraging  religious  persecution.  He  says  that  Bossuet, 
accustomed  to  force  his  wandering  brethren  back  to  the  church 
only  by  the  arms  of  argument,  could  not  persuade  himself  to 
consider  bayonets  as  fit  instruments  of  conversion.  For  the 
honour  of  our  nature,  of  which  Bossuet's  genius  is  a  shining 
ornament,  I  hope  this  may  have  been  as  D'Alembert  states  it. 
But  certainly  our  faith  in  his  authority  on  this  point  must  be 
a  little  shaken,  when  we  find  him,  in  the  notes  to  this  Eloge, 
endeavouring  also  to  exculpate  Louis  XIV.  from  the  same 
charge ;  and  asserting  that  that  monarch,  who  prided  himself 
so  much  on  directing  and  regulating  every  part  of  his  govern 
ment  with  his  own  hands,  did  not  approve  of  the  cruelties  he 
authorized.  "  Quoique  les  cruautes  exercees  contre  les  pro- 
testans,  le  fussent  au  nom  Louis  XIV.  il  paroit  que  ce  prince 
naturellement  juste  et  droit  ne  les  approuvoit  pas."  It  may 
indeed  be,  that  Bossuet,  like  Sir  Thomas  More  and  Dr.  John 
son,  spoke  from  a  wrong  theory  in  his  head,  while  he  acted 
from  right  feelings  of  the  heart.  At  any  rate,  Bossuet's  specu 
lative  opinions  were  such  as  they  have  been  stated  above. 
Besides  the  avowed  doctrine  of  his  Politique  tiree  de  VEcri- 
ture,  that  the  king  ought  to  use  his  authority  for  the  destruc 
tion  of  false  religion  in  his  state,  there  is  a  well  known  passage 
in  his  Histoire  des  Variations,  in  which  he  maintains  the 
church's  right  to  the  power  of  the  sword,  or,  in  his  own  words: 
"  L'exercise  de  la  puissance  du  glaive  dans  les  matieres  de  la 
religion  et  de  la  conscience ;  chose  qui  ne  peut  etre  revoquee 
en  doubte — le  droit  est  certain — il  n'y  a  point  d'illusion  plus 
dangereuse  que  de  donner  la  souffrance  pour  un  caractere  de 
la  vraie  eglise." 

It  is  true  that  these  are  but  general  and  rather  vague  ex 
pressions,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  D'Alembert  did  not  go 
further  into  the  refutation  of  Jurieu's  calumnies,  if  indeed  they 
are  calumnies.  Bossuet  must  be  ranked  among  the  greatest 
men  of  modern  Europe.  He  was  the  Milton  of  French  prose. 


APPENDIX.  91 

His  Histoire  Uriiverselle  is  a  wonderful  feat  of  eloquence.  By 
the  power  of  language  and  sentiment  he  has  given  to  a  mere 
chronological  table  all  the  effect  of  high  philosophy  and  ora 
tory.  His  Latin  style  bears  the  same  stamp.  When  Leibnitz 
proposed  a  general  council  of  Catholics  and  Protestants,  and 
as  a  preliminary  desired  that  certain  decisions  of  former  coun 
cils  should  be  disregarded,  Bossnet  summed  up  his  reply  with 
a  sentence,  of  which  Cicero  could  not  have  improved  the  ele 
gance,  nor  Tacitus,  the  condensation  and  force:  "Sic  itaque 
per  prostrata  anteriorum  conciliorum  cadavera,  ad  triste  et  in- 
felix  gradiemur  concilium."  No  wonder  that  the  universal 
Leibnitz,  who  had  carried  his  conquests  through  every  region 
of  controversy,  shrunk  from  the  grasp  of  this  mighty  master 
of  language  and  logic,  and  confessed,  in  perhaps  the  highest 
eulogy  that  ever  was  given  to  the  power  of  style,  "  II  nous 
£crase  par  1'expression."  "  He  crushes  us  by  the  force  of  ex 
pression." 


No.  IV,  p,  29. 

Loyd,  in  his  State  Worthies,  says,  that  "though  Lord  Bal 
timore  was  a  Catholic,  yet  he  kept  himself  sincere  and  disen 
gaged  from  all  interests:  and  was  the  only  statesman  that, 
being  engaged  to  a  decided  party,  managed  his  business  with 
that  great  respect  for  all  sides,  that  all  who  knew  him,  ap 
plauded  him.  and  none  that  had  any  thing  to  do  with  him 
complained  of  him.  He  was  a  man  of  great  sense,  but  not  ob 
stinate  in  his  sentiments,  taking  as  great  pleasure  in  hearing 
others'  opinions  as  in  delivering  his  own.  Judge  Popham  and 
he  agreed  in  the  public  design  of  foreign  plantations,  but  dif 
fered  in  the  manner  of  managing  them.  The  first  (Popham) 
was  for  extirpating  the  original  heathen  inhabitants,  the  second 
for  converting  them.  The  former  sent  the  lewdest  people  to 
those  places,  the  latter  was  for  the  soberest;  the  one  was  for 
present  profit,  the  other  for  a  reasonable  expectation,  liking  to 
have  but  few  governors,  and  those  not  interested  merchants, 
but  unconcerned  gentlemen,  leaving  every  one  to  provide  for 
himself,  and  not  out  of  a  common  stock."  See  further  in  the 
Biographia  Britannica,  article  "Calvert." 


92  APPENDIX. 

Anderson,  in  his  History  of  Commerce,  has  the  following 
notice  of  the  first  settlement  of  Maryland.  "This  year,  1632, 
gave  rise  to  the  colony  of  Maryland,  being  a  part  of  what  was 
then  reckoned  Virginia.  Sir  George  Calvert,  secretary  of  state, 
having  in  1621  and  1622  obtained  of  king  James  a  grant  of 
part  of  Newfoundland,  he  some  time  after  removed  thither 
with  his  family,  but  he  soon  found  it  to  be  one  of  the  worst 
countries  in  the  habitable  world;  whereupon  he  returned  back 
to  England,  and  he  being  a  conscientious  Roman  Catholic,  was 
inclined  to  retire  to  some  part  of  Virginia,  there  quietly  to  en 
joy  the  free  exercise  of  his  religion,  for  which  purpose  he  went 
thither  himself  in  or  about  the  year  1631,  but  being  discour 
aged  by  the  universal  dislike  which  he  perceived  that  the  peo 
ple  of  Virginia  had  to  the  very  name  of  a  Papist,  he  left  Vir 
ginia,  and  went  farther  up  the  bay  of  Chesapeake,  and  finding 
there  a  very  large  tract  of  land  commodiously  watered  with 
many  fine  rivers,  and  not  yet  planted  by  any  Christians,  he  re 
turned  for  England,  and  represented  to  the  king,  that  the  colony 
of  Virginia  had  not  as  yet  occupied  any  lands  beyond  Potow- 
mack  river;  whereupon  he  obtained  a  promise  of  the  king's 
grant,  but  dying  before  it  was  made  out,  his  son  Cecilius  took 
it  out  in  his  own  name,  June  20th,  1632,  the  king  himself 
naming  it  Maryland,  in  honour  of  the  Queen  Henrietta  Ma 
ria."  See  also  Sir  William  Keith's  History  of  Virginia. 

It  is  generally  allowed  that  this  charter,  and  the  fundamen 
tal  code  of  laws,  including  the  provisions  for  the  protection  of 
religious  liberty,  were  drawn  up  by  the  first  Lord  Baltimore, 
and  that  his  sons,  Cecilius,  Lord  Baltimore,  and  Leonard  Cal 
vert,  who  was  the  first  governor,  merely  executed  the  designs 
of  their  father. 

Our  very  accurate  and  laborious  historian,  Dr.  Trumbull, 
who  seems  to  retain  more  of  the  spirit  and  tastes  of  good  Cotton 
Mather  and  his  brethren,  than  any  writer  of  our  age,  and 
is  never  employed  so  much  to  his  own  satisfaction  as  when  he  is 
relating  the  petty  ecclesiastical  squabbles  of  Connecticut,  gives 
an  honest,  if  not  a  very  warm  tribute  of  praise  to  the  Calvert 
family.  "  The  charter  of  incorporation  was  one  of  the  most 
ample  which  had  been  granted.  It  not  only  conveyed  the  lands 
in  the  fullest  manner,  but  authorized  a  free  assembly,  without 


APPENDIX.  93 

the  least  royal  interference.  Liberty  of  conscience  was  allow 
ed  to  Christians  of  all  denominations.  Presents  were  made  to 
the  Indians  to  their  satisfaction,  so  that  the  country  was  at 
peace.  These  circumstances,  together  with  the  rigid  princi 
ples  of  the  Virginians  and  some  of  the  other  colonists,  had  in 
fluence  to  expedite  the  settlement.  Remarkable  it  was,  that 
under  a  Roman  Catholic  proprietary,  puritans  were  indulged 
that  liberty  of  conscience  which  was  denied  them  by  their  fel 
low  protestants.  Emigrants  flocked  in  such  numbers  into  the 
colony,  that  it  soon  became  populous  and  flourishing."— 
TrumbuWs  General  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  L  p. 
95. 


No.  V.  p.  30—35, 

William  Penn  must  be  considered  the  father  of  Quakerism 
as  it  now  appears.  George  Fox,  James  Nayler,  and  others, 
had  indeed  first  given  it  the  sectarian  impulse,  formed  it  into  a 
distinct  body,  planned  its  discipline,  and  taught  most  of  its  pe 
culiar  tenets.  But  it  was  Penn  who  freed  his  sect  from  the 
wildness  and  extravagance  of  its  first  professors,  and  gave  to  it 
that  spirit  of  toleration,  and  that  direction  of  practical  benevo 
lence,  on  which  its  members  now  justly  pride  themselves. 
Thus  he  may  be  said  to  have  had  the  same  share  in  forming 
the  spirit  and  character  of  his  sect,  that  Franklin  had  in  the 
discoveries  of  electricity.  Franklin's  predecessors  had  been 
able  to  evolve  the  electric  fluid,  and  to  accumulate  and  condense 
its  force ;  but  it  was  he  who  first  controlled  its  powers,  and 
made  always  harmless,  and  often  eminently  useful,  what  had 
before  been  a  strange  and  alarming  phenomenon. 

To  be  enabled  to  effect  this  salutary  change,  as  well  as  those 
other  important  results  upon  which  his  fame  is  built,  it  was  ne 
cessary  that  Penn,  while  he  equalled  any  of  his  sect  in  fervent 
zeal  and  sincerity,  and  far  excelled  them  all  in  extent  of  know 
ledge,  as  well  as  comprehensiveness  and  clearness  of  under 
standing,  should  yet  so  far  honestly  participate  in  their  failings 
and  eccentricities,  as  never  to  lose  his  strong  hold  upon  their 
sympathies. 


94  APPENDIX. 

We  may  smile  when  we  see  him  and  his  friend  Robert 
Spencer,  commencing  their  religious  career  by  falling  upon  the 
Christ  Church  students,  after  prayers,  and  tearing  their  sur 
plices  over  their  heads ;  we  may  lay  down  his  "  No  Cross  no 
Crown"  with  astonishment,  when  we  find  him  suspending  a 
most  noble  strain  of  hortatory  theology,  (to  use  a  Johnsonian 
phrase,)  in  order  to  introduce  a  long  discussion  on  the  abomi 
nation  of  hat- worship,  or,  when  he  is  inculcating  the  practice 
of  virtue  by  recounting  the  brightest  examples  of  benevolence} 
piety,  and  purity,  inserting  among  them  the  praises  of  Pope 
Gregory  for  having  entirely  destroyed  a  number  of  Greek  and 
Latin  historians  and  poets,  and  haying  been  nearly  successful 
in  suppressing  Terence,  Martial,  and  Plautus ;  and  we  may  well 
wonder  how  it  could  be  possible  that  the  same  man,  who  in 
1673,  was  busily  engaged  in  controversy  with  a  madman,*  who 
maintained  that  Christians  ought  always  to  keep  their  hats  on, 
unless  they  felt  some  special  internal  motion  to  take  them  off, 
could,  in  1678,  appear  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons  re 
pelling  the  charges  against  himself  and  his  people  with  the 
firmness  and  dignity  of  John  Hampden,  and  maintaining  the 
rights  of  conscience  and  liberty  of  faith  of  all.  (even  the  then 
hated  and  dreaded  Roman  Catholics,)  with  a  mild  eloquence 
hardly  inferior  to  that  of  Fenelon. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  very  evident  that,  without  this  most  ano 
malous  mixture  of  mental  strength  and  weakness,  Perm  could 
never  have  accomplished  any  of  those  important  moral  and  po 
litical  changes,  which  have  rendered  his  name  so  deservedly  il 
lustrious.  If  what  appears  at  a  hasty  glance  to  be  the  incon 
gruous  part  of  his  character  could  have  been  lopped  off,  Penn 
might,  like  Evelyn,  have  been  a  most  amiable,  religious,  and 
learned  country  gentleman;  he  might  have  founded  hospitals, 
colleges,  free-schools,  and  libraries,  and  very  probably  written 
delightful  books,  and  made  good  speeches  in  Parliament;  but 

*  John  Perrot,  who  maintained  this  doctrine  in  a  book  entitled  "  The 
Spirit  of  the  Hat ;  to  which  Penn  replied  in  "  The  Spirit  of  Alexander, 
the  Coppersmith,  lately  revived  and  now  justly  rebuked."  Perrot  re 
joined,  but  Penn  finally  silenced  him  with  "  Judas  and  the  Jews  com 
bined." —  Clarkson's  Life  of  Penn,  chap.  x. 


APPENDIX.  95 

he  never  would  have  become  the  founder  of  a  great  state,  and 
one  of  the  most  venerated  fathers  of  the  civil  and  religious  li 
berties  of  a  mighty  republic ;  nor  would  he  have  left  a  name  to 
be  held  in  reverence  to  the  latest  ages,  as  that  of  a  great  moral 
benefactor  of  the  human  race. 

Penn's  fame  is  now  so  firmly  established,  that  it  is  hardly  ne 
cessary  to  take  notice  of  the  slight  aspersions  which  his  cotem- 
porary  Bishop  Burnet,  and  the  historian  Chalmers  have  cast 
upon  him.  Burnet  was  a  party  man,  and  he  had  both  a  politi 
cal  and  a  personal  dislike  to  Penn,  much  like  that  borne  by 
Swift  and  Arbuthnot  to  Burnet  himself  in  his  old  age.  He  and 
Chalmers  accuse  Penn  of  ambition,  of  which,  doubtless,  he  had 
a  share;  but  it  was  of  the  purest  kind,  and  of  dissimulation, 
from  which  no  man  was  ever  more  free.  With  all  his  preju 
dices,  Chalmers  allows  Penn  much  merit,  and  expressly  states, 
that  every  change  in  his  frame  of  government  (and  he  made 
several)  was  always  in  favour  of  freedom. 

There  were  now  and  then  some  political  discontents  in  the 
province,  which  Penn's  enemies  exaggerated.  These  mostly 
took  place  during  his  absence;  his  personal  administration  in 
Pennsylvania  was  peaceful  and  prosperous.  The  happiness 
and  rapid  growth  of  the  new  colony  attest  the  wisdom  of  his 
government.  Proud,  in  his  history  of  Pennsylvania,  (Vol.  II. 
p.  111.)  observes  very  justly:  "As  to  what  few  irregularities 
and  deficiencies,  that  really  existed  in  the  government  or  ma 
nagement  of  the  province  unmagnified  by  his  adversaries,  they 
were  principally  owing  to  his  absence  from  it ;  which,  it  is  cer 
tain,  was  very  much  against  his  mind,  and  chiefly  occasioned 
by  the  necessity  of  his  circumstances,  the  unsettledness  of  the 
government  of  England,  together  with  the  attempts  of  his  ene 
mies,  and  his  great  beneficence  to  his  province,  with  his  small 
and  discouraging  returns  from  thence." 

"  The  style  is  the  man,"  says  a  great  writer.  Penn's  style 
is  peculiar  and  characteristic.  It  is  full  of  thoughts  and  full  of 
words,  yet  most  transparently  clear.  Altogether  unlike 
Taylor,  and  other  copious  writers  of  his  own  and  the  pre 
ceding  age,  in  whose  long  sentences,  crowds  of  images^ 
ideas,  and  words,  are  struggling  together  for  utterance,  Penn 
deliberately  presents  his  thoughts  to  the  reader  one  by  one, 


96  APPENDIX. 

turns  each  round  and  round,  displays  it  in  every  light, 
and  then  passes  to  the  next.  His  mind  always  seems  to  be 
calm  and  equable,  even  when  controversy  betrays  him  into  the 
rough  polemical  language  of  his  days,  or,  as  he  calls  it,  "  When 
he  allows  himself  the  freedom  of  the  prophet  Elijah  against  the 
prophets  of  Baal."  We  must  even  grant  that  he  uses  this  free 
dom  of  retaliation  but  sparingly,  when  we  consider  "  what 
showers,"  as,  he  says,  "  of  reproach  had  fallen  often  and  thick 
upon  him."  Penu  himself  might  have  thought  the  appellation 
no  compliment,  yet  he  certainly  was  a  gentleman  in  all  his 
deportment  and  feelings.  "However  differing,"  said  he,  with 
much  truth,  "  I  am  from  other  men,  circa  sacra,  that  is,  rela 
tive  to  religious  matters,  and  to  that  world  which,  respecting 
men,  may  be  said  to  begin  where  this  ends,  I  know  no  religion 
which  destroys  courtesy,  civility,  and  kindness.  These,  right 
ly  understood,  are  great  indications  of  true  men,  if  not  of  good 
Christians." 

In  the  State  Trials,  there  is  a  report  of  one  of  Penn's  trials 
for  illegal  preaching.  It  is  perfectly  dramatic,  and  brings  the 
whole  scene  before  the  reader  in  the  most  vivid  manner.  You 
there  see  Penn  displaying  all  his  peculiarities,  and  many  of  his 
virtues.  Instead  of  defending  his  cause  as  a  private  case,  he 
makes  himself,  as  he  always  did,  the  champion  of  great  princi 
ples,  and  shows  himself  worthy  such  a  cause.  In  the  course 
of  the  trial,  he  discovers  another  quality  which  we  should  less 
expect  to  find  in  him — a  vein  of  grave,  sarcastic,  and  yet  good 
tempered  humour.  After  showing  himself  a  much  more  learn 
ed  constitutional  lawyer  than  any  of  the  court,  and  having  been 
treated  with  the  utmost  indignity  and  injustice,  he  put  some 
home  questions  to  the  Recorder,  on  the  law,  who  finally  an 
swered  with  great  indignation,  "  I  tell  you  to  be  silent;  if  we 
should  suffer  you  to  ask  questions  till  to-morrow,  you  would 
be  never  the  wiser."  "  That,"  replied  Penn,  with  unshaken 
gravity,  "  is  according  as  the  answers  are." 

On  another  occasion,  after  having  been  repeatedly  imprison 
ed,  when  he  was  brought  before  a  magistrate,  he  began,  as 
usual,  to  argue  against  persecution,  and  to  assert  his  natural 
and  constitutional  rights,  the  magistrate,  unable  to  reply,  called 
for  a  file  of  soldiers  to  take  him  to  prison.  "  Nay,"  said  Penn. 


APPENDIX.  97 

"send  thy  boy  with  me;  I  know  the  way  to  Newgate."  In  his 
"No  Cross  no  Crown,"  there  is  a  passage  describing  the  plots 
of  plays  and  romances  with  much  dry  humour ;  but  he  in 
dulged  this  talent  very  seldom. 

His  letter  of  advice  to  his  wife  and  children,  on  his  leaving 
England,  is  one  of  the  finest  moral  tracts  in  any  language.  It 
should  be  printed  as  a  companion  to  Louis  XVI.'s  instructions 
for  the  education  of  the  Dauphin;  for  almost  every  thing  of 
any  value  that  can  be  said  on  the  subject  of  education,  is  to  be 
found  in  these  two  little  tracts. 

The  life  of  William  Penn  has  been  written  accurately  and 
sensibly,  but  very  heavily,  by  Clarkson.  Our  countryman, 
Proud,  has  done  it  better,  as  far  as  he  goes,  in  his  history  of 
Pennsylvania.  But  the  subject  is  a  very  rich  one,  and  requires 
a  biographer  who  should  be  more  sprightly,  more  eloquent, 
and  more  philosophical  than  either  of  them. 


No.  VI.  p.  43—52. 

In  Swift's  correspondence  there  is  a  letter  from  Dean  Swift  to 
Lord  Carteret,  then  lord  lieutenant  of  Ireland,  on  the  subject 
of  Dr.  Berkeley's  project;  which  contains  some  curious  par 
ticulars  of  the  life,  character,  and  plans  of  Dr.  Berkeley, 
and  is,  at  the  same  time,  very  characteristic  of  the  best  and 
worst  parts  of  Dr.  Swift's  own  disposition — that  is  to  say,  of 
his  readiness  to  serve  his  friends,  and  his  inclination  to  sneer 
at  every  thing  that  did  not  agree  with  the  rules  of  his  own 
selfish  prudence. 

"  There  is  a  gentleman  of  this  kingdom  just  gone  for  Eng 
land  ;  it  is  Dr.  George  Berkeley,  Dean  of  Derry,  the  best  prefer 
ment  among  us,  being  worth  eleven  hundred  pounds  a  year. 
And  because  I  believe,  you  will  chose  out  some  very  idle  mi 
nutes  to  read  this  letter,  perhaps  you  may  not  be  ill  entertained 
with  some  account  of  the  man  and  his  errand.  He  was  a  fel 
low  of  the  university  here,  and  going  to  England  very  young, 
about  thirteen  years  ago,  he  became  the  founder  of  a  sect 
there,  called  the  Immaterialists,  by  the  force  of  a  very  cu- 

H* 


98 


APPENDIX. 


rious  book  upon  that  subject.  Dr.  Smallridge  and  many  other 
eminent  persons  were  his  proselytes.  I  sent  him  secre 
tary  and  chaplain  to  Sicily,  with  my  Lord  Peterborough ;  and 
upon  his  lordship's  return,  Dr.  Berkeley  spent  above  seven 
years  in  travelling  over  most  parts  of  Europe,  but  chiefly 
through  every  corner  of  Italy,  Sicily,  and  other  islands.  When 
he  came  back  to  Ireland,  he  found  so  many  friends  that  he 
was  effectually  recommended  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  by 
whom  he  was  lately  made  Dean  of  Derry.  Your  excellency 
will  be  frightened  when  I  tell  you  all  this  is  but  an  introduc 
tion;  for  I  am  now  to  mention  his  errand.  He  is  an  absolute 
philosopher,  with  regard  to  money,  titles,  and  power;  and,  for 
three  years  past,  has  been  struck  with  a  notion  of  founding  a 
university  at  Bermudas,  by  a  charter  from  the  crown.  He 
has  seduced  several  of  the  hopefullest  young  clergymen  and 
others  here,  many  of  them  well  provided  for,  and  all  of  them 
in  the  finest  way  of  preferment;  but  in  England  his  conquests 
are  greater,  and  I  doubt  will  spread  very  far  this  winter.  He 
showed  me  a  small  tract,  which  he  designs  to  publish;  and 
there  your  excellency  will  see  his  whole  scheme  of  a  life  aca- 
demico-philosophical  (I  shall  make  you  remember  what  you 
were)  of  a  college  founded  for  Indian  scholars  and  missiona 
ries  ;  wherein  he  most  exorbitantly  proposes  a  whole  hundred 
pounds  a  year  for  himself,  [forty  pounds  for  a  fellow,  and  ten 
for  a  student.  His  heart  will  break  if  his  deanery  be  not  taken 
from  him  and  left  to  your  excellency's  disposal.  I  discouraged 
him  by  the  coldness  of  courts  and  ministers,  who  will  interpret 
all  this  as  impossible,  and  a  vision ;  but  nothing  will  do.  And, 
therefore,  I  humbly  entreat  your  excellency  either  to  use  such 
persuasions  as  will  keep  one  of  the  first  men  in  this  kingdom, 
for  virtue  and  learning,  quiet  at  home ;  or  to  assist  him  by  your 
credit  to  compass  his  romantic  design ;  which,  however,  is  very 
noble  and  generous,  and  proper  for  a  great  person  of  your  ex 
cellent  education  to  encourage." 

In  the  Memoirs  of  the  Court  of  Augustus,  a  learned  and 
useful  work,  though  written  in  an  affected  and  pedantic  style, 
the  author,  Dr.  Blackwall,  thus  speaks  of  the  wonderful  variety 
and  extent  of  Berkeley's  knowledge:  "I  would  with  pleasure 
do  justice  to  the  memory  of  a  very  great,  though  singular  sort 


APPENDIX.  99 

of  man,  Dr.  Berkeley,  better  known  as  a  philosopher  and  in 
tended  founder  of  a  university  in  the  Bermudas  than  as  Bishop 
of  Cloyne,  in  Ireland.  An  inclination  to  carry  me  out  on  that 
expedition  as  one  of  the  young  professors,  on  his  new  founda 
tion,  having  brought  us  often  together,  I  scarce  remember  to 
have  conversed  with  him  on  that  art,  liberal  or  mechanic,  of 
which  he  knew  not  more  than  ordinary  practitioners.  He  tra 
velled  through  a  great  part  of  Sicily  on  foot,  clambered  over 
the  mountains,  and  crept  into  the  caverns  to  investigate  its  na 
tural  history  and  discover  the  causes  of  its  volcanoes  ;  and  I 
have  known  him  sit  for  hours  in  forgeries  and  founderies,  to 
inspect  their  successive  operations.  I  enter  not  into  his  pecu 
liarities,  either  religious  or  personal,  but  admire  the  extensive 
genius  of  the  man,  and  think  it  a  loss  to  the  western  world, 
that  his  noble  and  exalted  plan  of  an  American  university  was 
not  carried  into  execution." 

';And  coxcombs  vanquish  Berkeley  with  a  grin,"  says  a  co- 
temporary  poet.  This  epithet  is  too  harsh  to  be  applied  to 
Dr.  Reid  and  the  metaphysicians  of  his  school,  but  really  their 
ridicule  of  Berkeley's  system  is  very  poor,  and  unworthy  the 
dignity  of  philosophical  discussion. 

Indeed,  it  would  seem  that  Berkeley's  theory  does  not  differ 
in  its  foundation  from  the  old  Socratic  and  Platonic  philoso 
phy.  For  in  the  Phredon,  Socrates  is  represented  as  declaring 
it  to  be  his  opinion,  that  he  who  supposed  all  things  to  have 
been  disposed  and  ordered  by  a  MIND  should  not  pretend  to 
assign  any  other  cause  of  them. 

The  remark  Berkeley  makes  upon  Plato's  writings,  may  be 
applied  to  his  own.  "  His  works  are  the  touchstone  of  a  hasty 
and  shallow  mind."  Berkeley  has  no  common-place  ideas, 
and  those  who  will  not  take  the  pains  of  fathoming  the  depths 
of  his  philosophy,  can  easily  find  enough  of  apparent  paradox 
to  excuse  their  ignorance.  His  theory  of  vision  was  received 
on  its  first  appearance  with  a  good  deal  of  ridicule :  it  was 
fully  established,  during  his  own  life,  by  the  case  of  a  person 
who  was  born  blind,  and  restored  to  sight  by  an  operation  : 
and  all  subsequent  reasoning  has  tended  to  confirm  his  doc 
trine. 


100  APPENDIX. 

The  most  singular  instance  of  this  remarkable  man's  talent 
for  evolving  great  thoughts  and  grand  principles  from  ordinary 
subjects,  is  his  "  Siris,  or  a  Chain  of  Philosophical  Reflections 
and  Inquiries,  concerning  the  virtues  of  Tar- Water."  "  This 
is,  indeed,"  says  his  ingenious  biographer,  in  the  Biographia 
Britannica,  "  a  chain  which,  like  that  of  the  poet,  reaches  from 
earth  to  heaven,  conducting  the  reader  by  an  almost  insensible 
gradation  from  the  phenomena  of  tar- water,  through  the  depths 
of  the  ancient  philosophy,  to  the  sublimest  mystery  of  the 
Christian  religion."  Berkeley  thought  with  Bacon,  that  truth 
and  goodness  are  one,  differing  but  as  the  seal  and  the  print, 
and  in  his  constant  endeavour  to  keep  this  connexion  in  view, 
he  often  hazarded  what  may  seem  wild  theories  or  too  subtile 
refinements. 

His  mathematical  speculations  are  also  unique  in  their  way. 
His  objections  to  the  doctrine  of  fluxions  are  considered,  by 
mathematicians,  as  having  been  fully  refuted,  and,  doubtless, 
this  is  the  fact  in  a  mathematical  view  of  the  controversy;  but 
the  metaphysical  difficulties  which  he  has  raised  have  never 
been  satisfactorily  answered,  and  perhaps  cannot  be,  until  we 
obtain  some  deeper  insight  into  the  principles  of  knowledge 
than  any  that  the  present  systems  of  intellectual  philosophy 
afford.  Be  that  as  it  may,  certainly  there  is  scarcely  any  si 
milar  instance  of  ingenious  mathematical  speculation  being 
applied  to  important  moral  ends.  The  comprehensiveness  of 
Berkeley's  understanding,  the  wide  compass  of  his  knowledge, 
and  the  power  with  which  he  brings  it  all  to  bear  upon  appa 
rently  the  remotest  objects,  seem  to  prove  by  example  the  sub 
lime  philosophical  conjecture  of  Hooker,  "  that  by  circuit  of 
deduction,  it  may  be,  that  all  truth,  out  of  any  truth,  may  be 
concluded."  This  idea,  so  bold  and  original  in  the  age  of 
Hooker,  now  appears  to  derive  fresh  confirmation  from  every 
day's  experience,  and  we  have  recently  seen  a  splendid  exam 
ple  of  the  connexion  of  all  knowledge  in  the  illustration  of  ge 
ology,  from  the  observations  of  comparative  anatomy. 

The  object  of  his  Minute  Philosopher,  he  states  in  his  pre 
face  to  be  "  to  follow  the  Freethinker  through  his  various  cha 
racters  of  atheist,  libertine,  enthusiast,  scorner,  critic,  metaphy 
sician,  fatalist,  and  skeptic,"  in  the  course  of  which  he  employs 


APPENDIX.  101 

against  him  several  new  arguments,  drawn  from  his  own  ori 
ginal  speculations.  That  in  particular,  taken  from  the  lan 
guage  of  the  eye,  as  he  terms  it,  -is  not  only  singularly  inge 
nious  in  itself,  but  leads  the  mind  to  many  interesting  views  of 
the  principles  of  the  imitative  arts.  This  excellent  work,  like 
many  other  standard  publications  of  the  last  century,  had  fallen 
into  neglect  in  this  country,  when,  a  few  years  ago,  the  late 
Dr.  Dwight,  of  Connecticut,  revived  its  reputation  here,  and 
recommended  a  new  edition  of  it  to  the  American  public,  by 
a  short  notice  of  its  uncommon  merits.  This  came  with  pecu 
liar  propriety  from  Dr.  Dwight,  who  was  himself  an  acute 
metaphysical  reasoner,  and  the  President  of  Yale  College,  an 
institution  so  much  indebted  to  Berkeley.  As  this  notice  ap 
peared  only  in  the  New-Haven  edition  of  the  Minute  Philoso 
pher,  which  is  now  becoming  scarce,  no  apology  is  needed  for 
inserting  it  here. 

"  The  minute  Philosopher  is  an  able  defence  of  divine  reve 
lation.  The  writer  is  the  celebrated  Berkeley,  Bishop  of 
Cloyne.  universally  considered  as  one  of  the  first  philosophers 
who  have  appeared  in  any  age  or  country.  For  the  discussion 
of  this  subject  he  was  better  qualified  than  almost  any  other 
man  by  pre-eminent  talents,  both  natural  and  acquired  :  par 
ticularly  by  his  great  learning  and  singular  powers  of  reason 
ing.  This  work  is  an  illustrious  proof  of  these  talents,  and 
may  be  considered  as  a  store-house  from  which  many  succeed 
ing  writers  have  drawn  their  materials  and  their  arguments. 
The  Minute  Philosopher  consists  of  a  series  of  dialogues,  in 
volving  most  of  the  important  topics  in  the  debate  between 
Christians  and  infidels,  the  principal  arguments  by  which 
Christianity  is  defended,  and  the  principal  objections  with 
which  it  has  been  opposed.  The  reasoning  is  clear,  sound,  and 
conclusive.  The  characters  of  the  disputants  are  well  chosen  and 
ably  supported,  and  their  conversation  is  spirited  and  natural. 
The  work  is,  of  course,  highly  entertaining  as  well  as  con 
vincing.  In  the  character  of  Euphranor  particularly,  the  wri 
ter  has  given,  perhaps,  the  best  example  of  the  Socratic  man 
ner  of  reasoning  which  can  be  found.  Warton  observes,  that 
the  club  composed  of  Pope,  Swift,  Bolingbroke,  &c.  regarded 
this  work,  in  spite  of  the  prejudices  of  some  of  them,  as  a  mas- 


102  APPENDIX. 

terly  performance ;  not,  indeed,  when  first  presented  to  them, 
for  they  did  not  understand  it;  but  afterwards,  when  thorough 
ly  explained  by  its  author.,  who  knew  more  of  this  and  most 
other  moral  subjects  than  all  of  them  united. 

"  In  a  word,  The  Minute  Philosopher  may  be  confidently 
recommended  as  a  performance  of  the  first  merit,  to  all  who 
love  to  read  the  best  reasonings  on  the  most  important  sub 
jects." 

With  respect  to  the  University,  it  was  Berkeley's  design,  to 
"  train  up  a  competent  number  of  young  Indians  in  succes 
sion,  to  be  employed  as  missionaries  among  the  various  tribes 
of  Indians  bordering  upon  our  settlements.  It  appeared  to  be 
a  matter  of  very  material  consequence,  that  persons  should 
be  employed  in  this  service  who  were  acquainted  with  the 
languages  necessary  to  be  used ;  and  he  had  also  a  strong  per 
suasion  that  such  missionaries  would  be  much  better  received 
by  the  savages,  than  those  of  European  extraction.  These  In 
dian  lads  were  to  be  procured  from  the  different  tribes,  in  the 
fairest  manner,  and  to  be  fed,  clothed,  and  instructed  at  the 
expense  of  the  institution."  Chandler's  Life  of  President 
Johnson,  p.  50. 

Having  thus  provided  for  the  conversion  and  instruction  of 
the  savages,  he  intended  to  establish  his  university,  in  all  other 
respects,  on  the  most  liberal  scale,  so  as  to  advance  every  kind 
of  improvement  in  the  colonies.  He  meant,  besides  the  usual 
course  of  academical  instruction,  from  which  he  would  have 
discarded  much  of  "  the  pedantry  of  courts  and  schools,"  to 
have  all  the  useful  and  ornamental  arts  taught  here. 

As  there  now  seems  to  be  an  increasing  taste  for  the  produc 
tions  of  the  fine  arts  among  us,  it  may  be  a  fact  worthy  notic 
ing,  as  it  is  but  little  known,  that  the  first  regularly  instructed 
painter  in  North  America  was  Smibert,  who  had  been' Berke 
ley's  fellow-traveller  in  Italy,  and  was  brought  out  by  him  to 
act  as  instructer  in  drawing  and  architecture  in  the  intended 
institution.  Smibert  was  not  an  artist  of  the  first  rank,  for  the 
arts  were  then  at  a  very  low  ebb  in  England ;  but  the  best  por 
traits  which  we  have  of  the  eminent  magistrates  and  divines 
of  New-England  and  New- York,  who  lived  between  1725  and 
1751,  are  from  his  pencil. 


APPENDIX.  103 

Horace  Walpole,  in  his  "  Anecdotes  of  Painting,  in  Eng 
land,"  gives  some  account  of  him.  Walpole  was  a  man  of 
fashion  and  pleasure,  of  wit  and  taste,  and  withal  a  most  expert 
hunter  of  antiquarian  small  game ;  but  he  had  no  heart  for  any 
thing  generous  or  great,  and  he  speaks  of  Berkeley's  plans  as 
might  be  expected  from  such  a  man ;  though  he  may  be  par 
doned  for  slurring  over,  as  he  does,  his  own  father's  conduct 
in  the  business. 

"  John  Smibert,  of  Edinburgh,  was  born  about  1684,  and 
served  his  time  with  a  "common  house  painter;  but  eager  to 
handle  a  pencil  in  a  more  elevated  style,  he  came  to  London, 
where,  however,  for  subsistence,  he  was  forced  to  content  him 
self,  at  first,  with  working  for  coach-painters.  It  was  a  little 
rise  to  be  employed  in  copying  for  dealers,  and  from  thence  he 
obtained  admittance  into  the  academy.  His  efforts  and  ardour 
at  last  carried  him  to  Italy,  where  he  spent  three  years  in  copy 
ing  Raphael,  Titian,  Vandyck,  and  Reubens,  and  improved 
enough  to  meet  with  much  business  at  his  return.  When  his 
industry  and  abilities  had  thus  surmounted  the  asperities  of  his 
fortune,  he  was  tempted,  against  the  persuasions  of  his  friends, 
to  embark  in  the  uncertain,  but  amusing,  scheme  of  the  famous 
Dean  Berkeley,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  whose  benevolent 
heart  was  then  warmly  set  on  the  erection  of  a  universal  col 
lege  of  science  and  arts,  for  the  instruction  of  heathen  children 
in  Christian  duties  and  civil  knowledge.  Smibert,  a  silent, 
modest  man,  who  abhorred  the  finesse  of  some  of  his  profes 
sion,  was  enchanted  with  a  plan  that,  he  thought,  promised 
him  tranquillity  and  honest  subsistence  in  a  healthful  elysian 
climate,  and  in  spite  of  remonstrances,  engaged  with  the  Dean, 
whose  zeal  had  ranged  the  favour  of  the  court  on  his  side. 
The  King's  death  dispelled  the  vision.  Smibert,  however, 
who  had  set  sail,  found  it  convenient,  or  had  resolution  enough, 
to  proceed,  but  settled  at  Boston,  in  New-England,  where  he 
succeeded  to  his  wish,  and  married  a  woman  with  considerable 
fortune,  whom  he  left  a  widow  with  two  children  in  1751." 

Walpole  adds,  "  We  may  conceive  how  a  man,  so  devoted 
to  his  art,  must  have  been  animated,  when  the  Dean's  enthu 
siasm  and  eloquence  painted  to  his  imagination  a  new  theatre 
of  prospects,  rich,  warm,  and  glowing  with  scenery  which  no 


104  APPENDIX. 

pencil  had  yet  made  cheap  and  common  by  a  sameness  of 
thinking  and  imagination.  As  our  disputes  and  politics  have 
travelled  to  America,  is  it  not  probable  that  poetry  and  painting, 
too,  will  revive  amidst  those  extensive  tracts  as  they  increase 
in  opulence  and  empire,  and  where  the  stores  of  nature  are  so 
various,  so  magnificent,  and  so  new  ?"  This  was  written  in  1762. 
There  is  at  Yale  College  a  large  picture,  and,  from  its  sub 
ject,  an  interesting  one,  representing  Berkeley  and  some  of  his 
family,  together  with  the  artist  himself,  on  their  first  landing  in 
America.  I  presume  that  it  is  the  first  picture  of  more  than  a 
single  figure  ever  painted  in  the  United  States. 


No.  VII.  p.  68. 

As  Luzac's  works  are  not  often  to  be  met  with  in  this  coun 
try,  the  passages  above  referred  to  are  worth  extracting.  In 
the  dedication  of  his  Oratio  de  Socrate  cive,  Lugd.  Bat.  1795, 
to  Mr.  Adams,  he  thus  speaks  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States : 

"  Tale  quippe  hoc  foedus  est,  quo  omnia,  quee  ad  conservan* 
das,  firmandas,  augendas  vires  communes  faciant,  ullove  modo 
facere  possint,  conferre  tenentur  Socii ;  quo,  si  qui  officiis  ad 
salutem  universorum  necessariis  fungi  detractent,  remedia  prae- 
scripta  sunt  et  parata,  ut  ad  praestandam  fidem  inviti  etiam, 
revocentur ;  quo  neque  omnibus  sociis,  seu  regionum  magni- 
tudine,  aut  divitiis  ac  numero  civium  praevaleant,  seu  tractu, 
opibus  et  incolis  sint  caeteris  minores,  idem  jus  est,  eadem  fa- 
cultas,  eadeni  vis  suffragii,  neque  tamen  nna  alterave  civitas 
prcepotentior  in  sorores  immodice  dominari  queat :  secundum 
quam  denique  Pacti  legem  unus  est  supremns  Foederatorum 
Senatus,  una  Delagotorum  Concio,  unum  ^Erarium,  una  erga 
externas  nationes  potentia  et  voluntas;  et  singulis  tamen  sociis 
salva  in  rebus  suse  civitatis  manetsumma  auctoritas  ;  sal va  jura 
et  tribunalia,  salva  legum  ferendarum  potestas,  salva  tributa  et 
vectigalia,  salva  (uno  verbo)  omnia  quee  ad  robur,  ad  firmitatem, 
ad  externum  etiam  decus  SociataB  reipublicee,  necessario  non 

erant  abdicanda.  Sic  vos -ilia  refugistis  et  feliciter  evi- 

tastis  Federate  civitatis  vitia,  quibus  patria  nostra  per  ducentos 


APPENDIX.  105 

annos  misere  hue  et  illuc  jactata,  quassata  tandemque  in  ulti- 
mam  perniciem  acta  est ;  simulque  cavistis,  ne  immoderata  et 
nimia  unius  reipublicse  moles  (quod  serius  ocyus  fieri  per  re- 
rum  naturam  necesse  est)  in  varias  ac  discordes  dilabatur  fac- 
tionum  partes,  aut  in  unius,  nullis  limitibus  circumscriptam, 
deveniat  potestatem." 

In  another  passage  of  the  same  work,  after  some  words  of 
eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson,  "  quorum  dum  nomina  sepius 
memoria  recolo,  gratus  memini,  a  talibus  me  tantisque  viris, 
dum  ad  me  invisirent,  fuisse  invitatum  et  tantum  non  adduc- 
tum  qui  liberae  vestrae  Reipublicas  adscriberer,  vestra  omnium 
intima  admissione  usurus ;  quod  si  ante  hoc  octennium  feci- 

sem sed  quid  ego  tecum  de  nostris  Batavorum  per  sede- 

cem  annos  temporibus  atque  fatis?" 

No.  VIII.  p.  71. 

Du  Plessis  Mornay  was  such  a  character  as  we  may  imagine 
Cato  or  Helvidius  Priscus  would  have  been,  if  converted  to 
Christianity,  and  graced  with  the  manner  and  accomplishments 
of  chivalry.  The  modern  French  historians  (among  others 
Lacretelle,  if  I  recollect  rightly)  are  disposed  to  sneer  at  his 
stern  morality  and  profound  theological  learning.  Voltaire, 
however,  has  been  just  and  liberal  in  his  praise.  The  finest 
lines  of  the  Henriade  are  devoted  to  the  character  and  exploits 
of  "  Le  grand  Mornay  toujours  calme  et  serein."  See  Chant. 
VIII.  and  again  in  Chant.  IX. 

Non  moins  prudent  ami  que  philosophe  austere 
Mornay  sut  Part  discret  de  reprendre  et  de  plaire  ; 
Son  exemple  intruisait  bien  mieux  que  ses  discours ; 
Les  solides  vertus  furent  ses  seuls  amours. 
Avide  de  travaux,  insensible  aux  delices, 
II  marchait  d'un  pas  ferme  au  bord  des  precipices. 
Jamais  Pair  de  la  cour  et  son  soufle  infecte, 
N'altera  de  son  coeur  Paustere  purete". 
Belle  Arethuse,  ainsi  ton  onde  fortune*e 
Roule  au  sein  furieux  d'Amphitrite  etomie*e 
Un  chrystal  toujours  pur  et  des  flots  toujours  clairs, 
due  jamais  ne  corrompt  1'amertume  des  mers. 
I 


106  APPENDIX. 

Mornay,  the  sage  austere,  the  prudent  friend, 
Knew  the  wise  art  to  blame,  yet  not  offend ; 
His  precepts  less  than  his  example  mov'd, 
And  lofty  Virtue's  charms,  alone,  he  lov'd. 
Eager  for  toil,  and  deaf  to  Pleasure's  call, 
He  trod  her  slippery  brink,  nor  fear'd  to  fall ; 
The  court's  infectious  breath  he  scorn'd  to  fear ; 
His  soul  still  breath'd  its  own  pure  atmosphere. 
Chaste  Arethusa,  thus  thy  favour'd  wave 
Rolls  its  swift  course  where  Neptune's  billows  rave, 
Yet  pure  and  sweet  thy  chrystal  waters  glide, 
Untainted  by  the  brine  of  ocean's  tide. 

Mornay  has  also  received  the  praises  of  a  cotemporary  of 
as  varied  talents  as  his  own,  Grotius,  "  than  whom,"  says  W. 
Penn,  "these  ages  have  not  had  a  man  of  more  universal 
knowledge ;  a  light !  say  the  statesmen ;  a  light !  cry  the 
churchmen  too." 

Grotius  wrote  these  lines  for  Mornay's  epitaph. 

Nobilitas,  animo  claro  quam  sanguine  major^ 

Res  hominum  solers  noscere,  resque  Dei, 
Consilium  prudens,  dives  facundia  linguae, 

Hie  cum  Morneo,  contumulata  jacent. 

Nobility  of  soul,  by  Nature  giv'n, 
Nobler  than  blood  of  proud  ancestral  line; 

Skill  in  the  laws  of  man,  and  truths  of  heaven  ; 
Maturest  counsel ;  eloquence  divine, 

With  Mornay  here  repose  : — his  tomb  their  hallow'd  shrine. 

Both  of  the  above  translations  were  contributed  to  a  former 
edition  of  this  discourse  by  my  excellent  and  lamented  friend, 
the  late  Anthony  Bleecker,  of  New -York. 

No.  IX.  p.  74. 

It  has  been  sometimes  supposed  in  this  country,  that  the  aid 
given  by  France  to  the  United  States,  in  the  war  of  the  revolu 
tion,  was  wholly  a  measure  of  the  French  ministers,  in  which 
the  king  had  no  share.  This,  however,  was  certainly  neither 


APPENDIX.  107 

the  opinon  of  Franklin,  nor  of  Dickinson,  as  appears  from  va 
rious  passages  of  their  political  writings.  We  know  that  Louis 
XVI.  was  not  at  all  a  king  of  show:  he  was  to  the  best  of  his 
ability  the  efficient  head  of  his  government.  This  is  evident 
enough,  from  his  correspondence,  published  a  few  years  ago  by 
Helen  Maria  Williams ;  in  which  it  will  be  seen,  with  how  much 
interest  and  industry  he  directed  all  the  departments  of  the  state- 
It  was  not  intended  in  the  eulogium  which  has  been  given  to 
Louis  XVI.  in  the  preceding  pages,  to  vindicate  every  mea 
sure  of  his  reign.  But  though  it  is  true  that  he  often  erred, 
much  must  be  pardoned  to  the  difficulty  of  his  situation,  and 
much  allowed,  when  we  consider  the  contradictory  and  often 
profligate  counsels  of  those  by  whom  he  was  surrounded.  Even 
at  this  day,  with  all  the  lights  of  experience,  it  is  impossible  to 
say,  what  measures  on  his  part,  would  most  have  conduced 
to  the  permanent  prosperity  and  liberty  of  France.  I  have 
spoken  only  of  his  motives,  and  they  were  always  pure,  bene 
volent,  and  patriotic.  '•  La  despotisme,"  said  he,  in  a  private 
letter,  "  a  ceque  je  vois,  n'est  bon  a  rien,"  "Despotism,  as  far 
as  I  can  see,  is  good  for  nothing,"  and  this,  no  doubt,  was  his 
undissembled  belief.  It  is  not  at  all  a  rhetorical  exaggeration  to 
say,  as  I  have  done,  that  he  fell  a  voluntary  victim,  rather  than 
purchase  his  life  at  the  expense  of  the  blood  of  his  country 
men.  There  is  abundant  evidence  of  this  fact  in  his  correspon 
dence.  When  the  Count  D'Artois  reproached  him  with  not 
having  repressed  the  popular  impulse  by  force,  he  answers,  in 
a  letter  dated  7th  September,  1789 : 

"  Je  pourais  donner  le  signal  du  combat,  mais  quel  combat 
horrible  !  et  quelle  victoire  plus  horrible  encore  !  J'aurais  don- 
nee  le  signal  du  carnage,  et  des  milliers  de  Frai^ais  auraiant 
ete  immoles — mais  vous  direz  peut  etre,  le  peuple  a  triomphe — 
il  vous  a  prouve  par  ses  exces  qu'il  osait  abuser  de  la  victoire 
et  poignarder  son  ennemi  vaincu. — Ah  !  ne  contez  vous  pour 
rien  le  calme  d'une  bonne  conscience.  J'ai  fait  mon  devoir:" 
&c.  "  Mon  frere,  je  me  suis  sacrifie  pour  mon  peuple."  And 
again,  in  a  note  to  the  Comte  D'Estaing,  who  commanded  the 
body-guards  and  Swiss,  and  who  had  urged  the  king  to  imme 
diate  recourse  to  arms.  "  Me  defendre — il  faudrait  verser  le 
sang  des  Fransais,  mon  cceur  ne  peut  se  familiariser  avec  cette 


108  APPENDIX. 

affreuse  idee.    Si  je  succombe,  du  moins  je  n'aurai  nul  reproche 
a  me  faire !"    And  again,  in  1791,  to  M.  De  Bouille,  a  confi 
dential  friend. — "  Je  ne  murmure  point  centre  la  providence.  Je 
sais  que  la  succes  dependoit  de  moi ;  mais  il  faut  avoir  line  ame 
atroce  pour  verser  le  sang  de  mes  sujets — pour  opposer  une  re 
sistance  et  amener  la  guerre  civile  en  France.   Toutes  ces  idees 
ont  dechire  mon  coeur,  toutes  mes  belles  resolutions  se  sont 
evanouies."     These  sentiments  pervade  all  his  correspondence, 
but  they  are  no  where  more  strongly  expressed,  than  in  a  letter 
written  while  he  was  still  on  the  throne,  to  the  Prince  of  Con- 
de,  who  commanded  the  emigrant  army.     With  the  eloquence 
of  the  heart,  and  a  prophetic  spirit,  he  says  :  "  Les  insenses,  ils 
veulent  la  guerre  ?    Ah  !  si  jamais  le  signal  etait  donne,  elle 
serait  longue  et  cruelle.     Comme  elle  n'aurait  d'autre  objet  que 
la  vengeance  et  la  haine,  elle  deviendroit  barbare.     O  Dieu ! 
preservez  la  France  de  ce  funeste  fleau !  que  ces  hurlemens 
homicides  ne  soient  point  entendues!    S'il  me  faut  descen- 
dee  du  trdne,  monter  sur  Vechafaud  ou  Charles  I.  fut  im- 
mole,  abandonner  ce  que  j'ai  de  plus  cher  au  monde,  me  voila 
pret,  mais  point  de  guerre,  point  de  guerre.    Mon  cousin, 
vous  qui  desirez  unir  la  gloire  au  devoir — vous  qui  les  emigres 
regardent  comme  leur  pere  et  leur  chef,  et  qui  j'estime  moi, 
comme  un  frere  loyal  et  magnanime,  opposez  vous,  je  vous  en 
conjure,  aux  projets  insenses  des  Fra^ais  reunis  pres  de  vous: 
faites  leur  bien  connaitre  tout  le  danger,  opposez  ma  volonte, 
mes  avis,  mes  prierres  meme."    The  correspondence,  in  which 
patet  veluti  discriptd  tabelld  vita  REGIS,  the  king's  whole  life 
is  laid  open,  abounds  in  so  many  noble,  and  such  touching  pas 
sages,  that  I  can  scarce  refrain  from  more  numerous  extracts. 
I  shall  add  but  one ;  it  was  his  last  letter  to  Monsieur  (his  brother? 
Louis  XVIII.)  when  he  afterwards  was  brought  a  prisoner  to 
the  hall  of  the  National  Assembly,  after  the  massacre  at  the  Thu- 
illeries,  on  the  llth  of  August,  1792.     "Le  sang  et  le  feu  ont 
tour-a-tour  signale  1'afreuse  jour  d'hier,  mon  cher  frere.     Con- 
traint  de  quitter  mon  palais  avec  ma  famille,  de  chercher  un 
asile  au  millieu  des  mes  plus  cruels  ennemis,  c'est  sous'  leurs 
yeux  meme,  que  je  vous  trace,  peut  etre  pour  la  dernier  fois 
mon  affreuse  position.    Fra^ois  premier,  dans  une  circonstance 
perilleuse,  ecrivoit,  '  tout  est  perdu,  hors  1'honneur.'    Moi,  je 


APPENDIX.  109 

n'ai  plus  d'autre  espoir  que  dans  la  justice  de  Dieu,  dans  la  pu- 
rete  des  intentions  bienfaisantes  que  je  n'ai  jamais  cessed'avoir 
pour  les  Fran9ais.  Si  je  succombe,  comme  tout  porte  a  le 
croire,  souvenez  vous  d'imiter  Henri  IV.  pendant  le  siege  de 
Paris,  et  Louis  XII.  lorsqu'il  monta  sur  le  tr6ne  !" 

I  have  said,  in  the  foregoing  pages,  "  that  there  is  no  reason 
why  American  republicans  should  revoke  their  praises  of 
Louis  XVI."  This  observation  was  made,  not  because  there  is 
any  such  disposition  in  the  great  body  of  intelligent  Americans; 
for,  on  the  contrary,  as  far  as  my  own  observation  goes,  the 
personal  reputation  of  Louis  is  still  dear  to  the  people  of  this 
country  ;  but  because  there  have  been  a  few  instances,  and  dis 
graceful  ones  as  they  appear  to  me,  of  this  sacrifice  of  gratitude 
to  transitory  party  feelings.  One  of  the  most  conspicuous  of 
these  is  in  the  Columbiad  of  the  late  Mr.  Barlow.  That  work 
was  originally  published  at  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  revolu 
tion,  as  the  Vision  of  Columbus,  and  was  afterwards  expanded 
by  the  author  of  the  Columbiad,  and  published  under  that 
name  in  1808.  The  Vision  of  Columbus  was  dedicated,  by 
permission,  to  Louis  XVI. 

In  the  dedication,  Mr.  Barlow,  among  other  eulogy,  said, 
"  mankind  who  survey  your  conduct;  and  posterity  for  whom 
you  act,  will  see  that  the  debt  of  gratitude  is  paid."  And  in 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  book,  there  are  many  spirited 
lines  in  honour  of  "the  pride  of  monarchs,"  "the  rising  sun 
of  universal  fame,"  &c.  In  the  Columbiad  all  this  has  been 
suppressed,  and  in  place  of  it  appear  some  frigid  lines,  in 
which  Louis  is  represented  as  cheated  into  the  support  of  our 
Independence,  and  aping  the  language  of  virtue — "By  honest 
guile  the  royal  ear  they  bend,"  &c. — "  He  speaks  the  borrowed 
language  of  the  brave,"  &c. 

This  is  indeed  forgetting  the  independence  of  literary  ta-^ 
lent,  and  making  history  what  old  Chaucer  calls  it,  "  in  very 
dele — a  rock  of  ice  and  not  of  steel." 

These  pages  have  been  consecrated  to  the  praise  of  virtue, 
and  it  is  with  reluctance  that  I  have  admitted  this  censure  of 
a  man  wrhose  reputation,  either  literary  or  political,  I  feel  no 
disposition  to  undervalue.  Let  me,  however,  place  in  contrast 
to  his  conduct  towards  Louis  XVI.  that  of  the  venerable  and 

l* 


110  APPENDIX. 

eloquent  John  Dickinson.  It  is  well  known  that  that  true 
patriot,  accomplished  scholar,  and  excellent  man,  was  a  warm 
admirer  and  defender  of  the  principles  of  the  French  revolu 
tion  in  its  first  stages. 

His  letters  of  Fabius,  published  in  1797,  were  in  the  United 
States  what  Mackintosh's  Vindiciae  Gallics  was  in  England, 
not  equal  indeed  in  magnificence  of  language,  but  little  infe 
rior  in  elegance  and  in  ability,  or  in  exuberance  of  thought  and 
knowledge.  In  the  course  of  this  work,  which  is  devoted 
to  the  panegyric,  the  defence,  or  the  apology  of  the  French 
republic,  this  tolerant  and  benevolent  politician  digresses  to 
rebuke  the  injustice  of  some  of  his  own  party  friends  towards 
the  "unhappy  Louis."  The  concluding  passage  of  this  de 
fence  is  eloquent,  and  the  allusion  in  the  closing  quotation 
to  the  lilies  of  the  Bourbon  escutcheon,  felicitous. 

'•'  It  was  his  doom  to  live,  not  only  in  an  age  of  revolutions 
in  government,  but  also  of  revolutions  in  morality. 

"Scarcely  was  his  head  laid  low  in  the  dust,  probably  in 
consequence  of  our  liberty  being  established ;  scarcely  were 
those  lips  closed  in  eternal  silence,  which  never  spoke  to  us 
but  in  the  language  of  benediction  ;  scarcely  was  that  exist 
ence,  to  which  after  virtue  and  piety,*  fair  fame  was  dearest, 
dissolved  and  disabled  to  vindicate  an  aspersed  reputation,  than 

a  severe  scrutiny  was  made  into  his  unsceptred  merits, 

and  it  was  discovered by  Americans yes by  Ameri 
cans that  he  him.self  was  not  entitled  to  our  gratitude  or 

friendship,  but  was  a  selfish  unprincipled  villain. 

''  MUCH  injured  Louis  ! 

"  The  charges  of  thy  accusers  undesignedly  erect  a  lasting 
monument  to  thy  glory.  They  have  proved  thee  guilty  of 
sincerely  loving  thy  people.  Thy  feet  were  led  into  unbeaten, 
unexplored  tracts  of  policy,  and  thou  hadst  not  been  accus 
tomed  to  its  intricate  mazes.  Impelled  by  thy  benevolence 
towards  us,  a  young,  innocent,  oppressed,  .and  inexperienced 
people,  struggling  in  blood,  and  hardly  able  to  struggle,  though 
the  prize  was  no  less  than  PEACE,  LIBERTY,  and  SAFE 
TY,  against  the  then  most  formidable  nation  in  the  world, 

*  See  Malesherbes'  narrative. 


APPENDIX.  Ill 

and  by  thy  tender  affection  for  France,  recently  weakened  by 
deep  wounds  received  from  the  same  enemy,  thou  formedst 
the  kind  and  generous  resolution  to  help  us  at  our  utmost 
need,  though  the  execution  of  thy  noble  design  would  exhibit 

to  mankind  the  surprising  spectacle  of a  republic  fostered 

by  a  monarchy and  in  a  portion  of  the  globe  far  remote 

from  thy  kingdom and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  thy  most 

valuable  foreign  dominions and  thou  didst  help  us  "effec 
tually"  till  every  man  among  us  "from  one  end  of  our  land 
to  the  other,  and  from  one  side  of  our  land  to  the  other," 
dwelt  confidently  with  his  family,  "under  his  vine  and  under 
his  fruit  tree,"  and  allied  with  thee  and  thy  people,  "  there 
was  none  to  make  us  afraid." 

"  But,  in  directing  the  course  of  thy  exertions  through  an 
unknown  wilderness,  dangers  might  start  up  on  every  side. 
The  accusers  have  convicted  thee  of  being  more  anxious  for 

the  welfare  of  thy  people,  than  for  that  of  strangers yet 

heaven  and  earth  are  witnesses  that  to  thee,  to  thee,  un 
der  "  a  gracious  Providence  which  raised  thee  up  to  be  our 
friend,"*  "  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,"  stand'  in 
debted  for  the  best  of  blessings Liberty. 

"  Manibus  date  Lilia  plenis  : 

"  Purpureos  ut  spargam  flores,  animamque"  Jlmici 

"His  saltern  acumulem  donis,  et  fungar  inani 

"  Munere 

Bring  LILIES— LILIES  in  whole  handfuls  bring, 
With  all  the  purple  fragrance  of  the  spring ; 
These  unavailing  gifts  let  me  bestow  : 
'Tis  all  I  can — on  thy  dear  shade  below " 

To  those  who  are  but  superficially  acquainted  with  the  his 
tory  of  the  French  revolution,  it  appears  only  as  a  story  of 
blood  and  crime.  But  among  ten  thousand  atrocities  to  make 
the  heart  ache  with  the  sense  of  the  depravity  of  our  nature, 
there  may  be  found  many  examples  of  heroic  excellence,  as 
well  as  of  the  gentler  virtues.  Though  all  the  crimes  which 

*  Words  of  Congress. 


112  APPENDIX. 

marked  the  black  corruption  of  the  Roman  empire,  were  re 
newed  in  modern  France  still  the  French  patriot  may  proudly 
add,  in  the  words  of  Tacitus,  and  with  a  nobler  application, 
"Non  tamen  adeo  virtutum  sterilis  patriaut  non  et  bona  exem- 
pla  prodiderit.     Comitatae  profugos  liberos  matres:  secutrema- 
ritos  in  exsilia  conjuges:  propinqui  audentes:  constantes  gene- 
ri :  contumax  etiam adversus  tormenta  servorum  fides:  supre 
me  clarorum  virorum  necessitates  :  ipsa  necessitas  fortiter  to- 
lerata:  et  laudatis  antiquorum  mortibus  pares  exitus."    "Yet 
was  not  our  unhappy  land  so  barren  of  virtue  but  that  it  pro 
duced  even  then  noble  examples  of  faith  and  magnanimity. 
Mothers  accompanied  their  banished  children;  wives  followed 
their    husbands    into    exile    and    poverty  :     relations    were 
daring  in  their  kindred's   aid;    sons  perilled  their  lives  for 
parents;  servants  gave  proof  of  devoted  faith  and  affection; 
illustrious   men  reduced  to  abject  misery  bore  it  nobly;   and 
many  of  them  in  death  showed  a  fortitude  equal  to  that  of  he 
roic  antiquity."     What  example  is  there  in  antiquity  of  heroic 
self-devotion  and  constant  friendship  surpassing  that  of  Males- 
herbes  ?     He  has  claims  upon  our   admiration  as  an  upright 
judge,  a  philosophical  lawyer,  a  man  of  letters,  and  a  true 
friend  of  civil  and  religious  freedom  ;  but  all  this  is  forgotten 
in  the  strong  interest  which  he  inspires  when  we  see  him  re 
taining,  in  his  eightieth  year,  all  the  generous  affections  of 
youth,  and  volunteering  his  services,  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  in 
the  defence  of  his  friend.     "  I  was  twice  admitted,"  said  he,  in 
his  letter  to  the  Convention,  requesting  permission  to  appear 
as  counsel  for  Louis  XVI.  "into  the  councils  of  him  who  was 
then  my  master,  at  a  time  when  that  station  was  coveted   by 
every  one,  and  I  owe  him  the  same  duties  now,  when  it  has 
become  a  service  which  many  consider  dangerous."     How 
eloquent  is  the  heartfelt  expression  of  Louis's  gratitude  !     "  Je 
n'ai  point  des  termes,  mon  cher  Malesherbes,  pour  vous  ex- 
primer  ma  sensibilite  pour  votre  sublime  devouernent.     Votre 
main  octogenaire  s'est  etendue  vers  moi  pour  me  rapousser  de 
1'echafaud  ;  et  si  j'avais  encore  mon  tr6ne,  je  devrais  le  pata- 
ger  avec  vous,  pour  me  rendre  digne  de  la  moitie  que  m'en 
resterait.    Mais  Je  n'ai  que  des  chaines,  que  vous  rendez  plus 
legeres  en  les  soulevant.    Je  ne  me  fais  pas  illusion  sur  mon 
sort." 


EULOGY 


LORD       BALTIMORE 


[As  being  connected  with  the  subject  of  the  foregoing  Histo 
rical  Discourse,  it  has  been  thought  not  unappropriate  to  pre 
serve  in  this  place  a  brief  eulogy  upon  the  founder  of  Mary 
land,  which  was  delivered  at  the  Festival  held  in  1829,  by 
the  "  Friends  of  civil  and  religious  Liberty,"  in  the  city  of 
New- York,  on  the  occasion  of  the  final  passing  of  the  bill  for 
Catholic  emancipation  in  Ireland.  Dr.  Wm.  James  Me 
Neven  presided,  and  one  of  the  regular  toasts  from  the  chair 
was;  Charles  Carroll,  the  virtuous  surviving  signer  of  the 
great  charter  of  our  liberties. 

The  health  of  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton,  was  re 
ceived  with  rapturous  and  long-continued  applause. — After 
which  Mr.  Verplanck  rose  and  addressed  the  chair.] 


EULOGY  UPON  LORD  BALTIMORE. 


THE  enthusiastic  feeling  with  which  the  name  of  this 
venerable  patriot  has  just  been  greeted,  induces  me,  Mr- 
President,  to  request  your  permission  to  break  in  upon  the 
regular  order  of  toasts,  and  follow  the  one  last  given  by 
another  similar  in  sentiment,  closely  connected  with  it  by 
various  circumstances  and  recollections,  and  which  I  am 
confident  will  be  received  in  the  same  spirit. 

The  President — with  pleasure,  Sir,  it  is  in  order,  pro 
ceed." 

Mr.  Verplanck  then  resumed.  The  name  of  Charles 
Carroll,  the  patriot,  the  scholar,  a  liberal,  enlightened  and 
exemplary  Catholic,  a  Marylander  of  the  ancient  and  ori 
ginal  Catholic  race  of  that  state,  one  whose  name  is  so 
gloriously  and  durably  identified  with  the  history  of  this 
nation's  liberties,  and  the  charter  of  its  independence,  re 
calls  to  my  mind  a  remarkable  fact  in  the  early  history  of 
his  native  state. 

It  is  with  reference  to  this  fact  that  I  am  about  to  pro 
pose  to  you  as  a  toast,  a  memory — a  glorious  and  immor 
tal  memory,  as  it  well  deserves  to  be  called,  though  with 
a  quite  different  application  from  that  in  which  the  phrase 
is  familiar  to  Irish  ears.  It  is  one  of  the  most  curious 
facts  in  our  early  history,  a  fact  less  generally  known 
than  it  ought  to  be,  that  the  first  colony  of  modern  times 
which  was  founded  on  broad  principles  of  religious  free- 


1.16      EULOGY  UPON  LORD  BALTIMORE. 

dom,  explicitly  recognizing  the  rights  of  conscience  and 
the  liberty  of  thought,  was  that  of  Maryland,  a  Roman 
Catholic  colony,  founded  by  a  Roman  Catholic  legislator. 
Of  the  more  minute  and  personal  history  and  character 
of  Lord  Baltimore,  the  founder  of  Maryland,  not  very  much, 
I  believe  is  known,  but  we  do  know  that  he  had  served  his 
country  faithfully  and  honourably  in  peace  and  in  war,  and 
that  in  establishing  a  colony  for  the  retreat  of  his  fellow 
Catholics,  his  first  principle  of  legislation  was  Religious  Lib 
erty.  That  single  fact  gives  glory  enough  for  any  name. 

This,  Sir,  is  not  the  first  occasion  on  which  I  have  at 
tempted  to  draw  the  public  attention  to  this  history,  and 
to  do  honour  to  the  memory  of  this  wise  and  tolerant  states 
man.  Some  years  ago,  I  had  the  honour  to  be  appointed 
to  deliver  an  Anniversary  Discourse,  before  a  respectable 
literary  society  of  this  state,  instituted  for  the  cultivation 
and  preservation  of  American  History.  The  eminent  and 
accomplished  men  who  had  preceded  me  in  that  duty— 
among  others,  the  late  Dewitt  Clinton,  and  Gouver- 
neur  Morris,  had  pre-occupied  many  of  the  most  striking 
and  interesting  topics  peculiar  to  our  history.  One  sub 
ject,  however,  occurred  to  me  as  not  unworthy  of  being 
associated  with  those  which  had  successively  furnished  fit 
themes  for  the  eloquence  and  philosphy  of  those  distin 
guished  statesmen.  It  was  the  eulogy  of  some  of  those 
virtuous  and  enlightened  men  of  Europe,  who  long  ago. 
looking  with  a  prophetic  eye,  upon  the  destinies  of  this 
new  world,  were  moved  by  a  holy  ambition  to  become 
the  messengers  of  Heaven,  in  bestowing  upon  the  future 
race  who  were  to  people  these  shores,  the  blessings  of  mo 
rals,  education,  and  liberty. 

It  was  while  preparing  to  do  homage  to  the  mild  and 
peaceful  virtues  of  William  Penn,  that  I  was  first  forcibly 


EULOGY  UPON  LORD  BALTIMORE.       117 

struck  with  the  fact,  which  though  it  must  have  been 
already  known  to  me,  had  yet  never  made  any  impression 
on  my  mind,  that  sixty  years  before  the  foundation  of 
Pennsylvania,  Lord  Baltimore,  had  in  Maryland,  first  set 
the  illustrious  example  of  a  practical  and  extensive  system 
of  religious  freedom.  I  did  such  justice  at  that  time  as 
was  in  my  power  to  both  of  these,  as  well  as  to  a  few 
others  of  the  European  fathers  of  our  country's  liberties 
and  happiness. 

This  is  neither  the  time  nor  place  to  enter  into  histori 
cal  details,  nor  are  the  minute  fact  and  dates,  in  relation 
to  Lord  Baltimore  very  fresh  in  my  memory.  But,  Sir, 
to  estimate  justly  the  rare  merit  of  such  a  legislation,  let  us, 
for  a  moment,  but  consider  the  period  at  which  it  occur 
red. 

It  was  at  a  time,  when  nowhere  in  the  world  could 
be  found  a  country  or  state,  or  even  a  single  city,  where 
some  dominant  form  of  worship  or  belief  did  not  crush 
down  and  trample  upon  all  who  opposed  or  doubted. — 
Those  who  in  one  reign,  or  on  one  side  of  a  river  or  chan 
nel  were  heretics  and  martyrs,  became  at  another  time, 
or  at  a  different  place,  in  their  turns,  persecutors  and  op 
pressors. 

It  was  too,  at  a  period,  wiien  even  the  speculative  idea 
of  equal  religious  rights  was  nearly  unknown.  Now  and 
then  the  faint  and  feeble  voice  of  some  obscure  scholar  or 
philosopher,  was  raised  for  Toleration,  that  weak  and  im 
perfect  substitute  for  Liberty  of  Conscience — but  it  was 
raised  sometimes  from  the  depths  of  a  cloister,  oftener 
from  the  depths  of  a  dungeon,  and  rarely  reached  the  ears 
and  never  touched  the  hearts  of  the  mighty  ones  of  the 
earth.  Even  on  this  western  shore  what  at  that  period 
J  K 


118       EULOGY  UPON  LORD  BALTIMORE. 

was  to  be  seen  in  the  English  colonies  on  each  side  of  the 
infant  colony  of  Maryland  ?  In  New  England,  the  Pu 
ritans  just  escaped  from  the  prison  and  the  stocks  and  the 
scourge  at  home,  had  hardly  taken  breath  before  they  set 
themselves  to  persecute,  and  punish,  and  banish  the  Qua 
kers  and  the  Baptists.  These  very  Puritans  of  New  Eng 
land,  when  enterprise  or  commerce  brought  them  to  Vir 
ginia,  found  themselves  again  heretics,  and  there  felt  the 
heavy  arm  of  the  Established  Church. 

Such  was  the  spirit  of  the  times — such  the  circum 
stances  under  which  Maryland  was  founded,  and  such 
the  merit  of  its  founder. 

But  it  is  not,  Sir,  as  a  mere  piece  of  curious  history,  still 
less  as  a  theme  of  declamatory  eulogy,  that  I  have  been  de 
sirous  to  bring  these  facts  to  the  recollection  of  those  who 
are  here  assembled.  It  is  because  I  regard  them  as  af 
fording  an  example,  and  a  most  brilliant  and  impressive 
one,  of  a  great,  and  holy,  and  consoling  truth. 

The  founder  of  Maryland,  in  thus  rising  above  the  er 
rors  of  his  own  age,  and  probably  sacrificing  the  early 
prejudices  of  his  own  education,  had  no  higher  view  than 
that  of  establishing  a  humble  colony  on  a  distant  shore, 
where  a  few  of  his  countrymen  might  find  rest  and  peace, 
and  worship  God  after  the  manner  of  their  fathers,  or  the 
conviction  of  their  own  minds.  In  this  his  prayers  were 
heard  and  his  wishes  granted,  But,  meanwhile,  he  was 
unconsciously  becoming  the  instrument  of  a  still  nobler 
purpose.  He  was  unwittingly  laying  the  foundation  of 
a  state  destined  to  become  one  of  the  earliest  members  of 
a  great  republic.  He  was  preparing  a  race  of  repub 
lican  Catholics  for  the  toils  and  dangers  of  the  struggle 
for  Independence,  and  for  the  duties  and  privileges  of  self- 
government — a  race  jealous  of  their  own  rights  and  re- 


EULOGY  UPON  LORD  BALTIMORE.       119 

spectful  to  those  of  other  men — a  race  which  was  to  give 
to  the  church  such  men  as  the  learned,  pious,  and  liberal 
archbishop  Carroll — to  the  state  such  men  as  his  illustri 
ous  relative,  whose  name  alone  has  just  excited  a  burst  of 
generous  feeling  in  this  hall  to  which  no  pomp  of  words 
nor  power  of  eulogy  could  have  given  any  additional 
warmth  or  intensity.  He  was  laying  the  sacred  corner 
stone  of  that  great  edifice  of  civil  and  religious  equality, 
which  was  destined  gradually  to  take  in  the  whole  wide 
circuit  of  this  land — a  land  where  every  man's  religion  is 
protected  and  no  man's  religion  is  preferred,  where,  though 
piety  does  not  rear  her  mitred  head  in  courts  and  palaces, 
she  finds  her  true  and  living  throne  in  the  hearts  an^  con 
sciences  of  men. 

What  lesson,  then,  may  we  draw  from  this  grand  and 
beautiful  result?  To  me  it  seems  to  teach,  that  no  effort, 
no  exertion,  no  sacrifice  in  the  great  cause  of  equal  rights 
and  common  sense,  is  ever  fruitless.  Whether  it  be  like 
Lord  Baltimore's,  the  sacrifice  of  opinion  and  prejudice  to 
truth — whether  it  be  like  your  own,  Mr.  President,  and 
that  of  so  many  others  assembled  around  this  board,  those 
severer  sacrifices  to  liberty  which  bade  you  break  the  ties  that 
bound  you  to  your  native  soil,  and  early  homes,  and  youth 
ful  friends,  to  seek  in  another  clime  a  new  home  and  new 
friends,  (which  I  trust  you  have  all  here  found,) — or 
whether  the  patriot  be  called  to  a  still  dearer  sacrifice — even 
to  lay  down  his  life  in  the  glorious  martyrdom  of  con 
science  and  liberty,  like  the  English  Sidney,  or  the  Span 
ish  Riego,  or  the  younger  Emmet  of  Ireland — the  sacri 
fice  is  never  lost — that  blood  is  never  spilt  in  vain. — For 
a  season,  the  effect  may  be  hidden  from  every  human 
eye.  But  the  seeds  of  truth  are  scattered  wide  abroad. 
They  are  wafted  by  the  winds  of  heaven  to  the  ends  of 


120       EULOGY  UPON  LORD'  BALTIMORE. 

the  earth.  On  some  remote  shore,  or  in  some  obscure 
nook  they  take  root,  and  that  root  strikes  deep  and  firm. 
There  they  spring  up  in  solitude  and  darkness,  unnoticed 
of  men. — But  soon  the  vigorous  trunk  shoots  aloft.  It 
towers  to  the  skies.  It  puts  forth  its  broad  arms.  Tribes 
and  nations  seek  shelter  under  its  mighty  shade,  and  gath 
er  from  its  branches  the  rich  fruits  of  public  greatness  and 
private  happiness. 

Then  at  length  the  almost  forgotten  name  of  the  pa 
triot,  the  hero,  or  the  sage,  so  long  overclouded  by  calumny, 
or  darkened  by  neglect,  blazes  forth  at  once  in  the  clear  ef 
fulgence  of  true  glory.  It  receives  the  homage  of  genius, 
and  the  gratitude  of  nations.  It  becomes  the  precept  of 
age,  and  the  example  of  youth.  It  is  now  for  ever  rescued 
from  oblivion.  For  it  is 

Freedom's  now  and  Fame's  ; 
One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names, 
That  were  not  born  to  die.* 

Mr.  President,  it  is  in  this  trust,  and  with  these  senti 
ments,  that  I  propose  to  you  as  a  toast,  "The  memory  of 
the  wise  and  liberal  founder  of  Maryland."  His  name  must 
be  dear  to  every  patriot,  and  his  example  is  eminently  cal 
culated  (in  your  own  felicitious  language  this  evening) 
"  to  enlighten  the  understandings  and  change  the  hearts 
of  the  living  statesmen  of  Europe." 


*  Halleck. 


AN    ADDRESS 

DELIVERED    AT 

THE    OPENING    OF^THE    TENTH,  EXHIBITION . 
OF    THE 

AMERICAN      ACADEMY 
OF     THE     FINE     ARTS. 

MAY,     1824 


K* 


ADDRESS 

ON      THE      FINE      ARTS 


MR.  VICE  PRESIDENT,  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  ACADEMY. 

WE  have  all  of  us,  Gentlemen,  very  much 
to  regret  that  our  venerable  President  has  been  compelled 
by  domestic  calamity  to  relinquish  the  performance  of  the 
duty  he  had  undertaken  at  our  request.  If  he  could  have 
now  addressed  you,  as  was  his  intention,  you  might  have 
received  from  one  who  unites  the  character  of  a  distin 
guished  artist  to  that  of  a  man  of  letters,  such  views  of 
the  philosophy  and  the  history  of  his  profession,  as  can 
be  given  only  by  him  who  combines  practical  skill  with 
extensive  and  critical  observation. 

In  attempting  to  supply  his  place  upon  this  occasion,  I 
can  only  speak  as  an  uninstructed  lover  of  the  arts ;  and, 
in  speaking  of  what  I  have  never  practised,  and  have  stu 
died  but  little,  must  necessarily  confine  myself  to  some 
general  and  perhaps  vague  observations. 

Our  Academy  was  founded  about  twenty  years  ago, 
in  the  hope  of  contributing  something  towards  the  cultiva 
tion  of  taste  in  this  country,  and  the  diffusion  and  improve 
ment  of  skill  in  the  arts  of  design.  Amongst  its  original 
founders  and  patrons,  were  some  of  the  most  distinguish 
ed  men  of  their  times,  whose  names  are  durably  inscribed 
in  the  history  of  our  republic.  Among  them,  together 


124  ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

with  several  who  yet  live  to  adorn  and  guide  the  councils 
of  their  country,  were  the  late  Chancellor  Livingston, 
whose  active, comprehensive,  and  accomplished  mind  was 
ever  fertile  in  plans  of  public  improvement,  and  the  late 
Robert  Fulton,  whose  brilliant  and  solid  success  in  the 
useful  and  mechanical  arts  did  not  render  him  either  con 
temptuous  or  indifferent  towards  those  of  taste  and  orna 
ment.  The  institution  which  they  established  has  not 
wholly  failed  in  its  intention.  Something  has  been  ef 
fected  by  it  in  instructing  public  taste,  in  affording  mo 
dels  to  the  student,  and  in  making  the  works  and  talents 
of  our  artists  more  known  amongst  us ;  yet  various  cir 
cumstances  have  unfortunately  conspired  to  hinder  it  from 
realizing  all  the  sanguine  hopes  of  its  early  friends,  and 
to  interrupt  or  destroy  that  unity  of  action  among  our 
few  artists  and  men  of  taste,  which  could  alone  give  to  it 
that  great  and  lasting  utility  of  which  it  is  capable,  and 
thus  render  it  a  deserving  object  of  the  pride  of  our  city 
and  state. 

But  let  us  not  look  back  to  the  past.  Indulging  the 
hope  that  brighter  prospects  are  now  about  to  open  upon 
us,  permit  me  to  invite  the  attention  of  the  numerous  and 
respectable  assembly  who  have  honoured  the  celebration 
of  our  annual  exhibition  with  their  presence,  to  the  con 
sideration  of  the  uses  and  value  of  the  FINE  ARTS — not 
so  much  with  reference  to  the  private  studies  and  plea 
sures  of  the  artist  or  the  amateur,  but,  as  they  deservedly 
recommend  themselves  to  the  notice  of  the  patriot  and 
the  philanthropist,  as  they  are  fitted  to  add  to  the  conv 
forts  and  multiply  the  innocent  enjoyments  of  life,  to 
adorn  and  dignify  the  aspect  of  society,  to  give  impulse 
and  exercise  to  the  latent  talent,  and  fresh  lustre  to  the 
glories  of  our  nation-  and  by  their  moral  influence  upon 


ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.  125 

all  classes,  to  animate  patriotism,  to  refine  the  manners, 
and  elevate  the  character. 

It  must  be  obvious  to  all,  that  the  arts  of  design  have 
a  direct  and  positive  utility,  far  beyond  their  own  imme 
diate  sphere,  arising  from  the  constant  and  indispensable 
aid,  which  they  afford  to  the  mechanical  arts,  to  physical 
science,  and  to  many  of  the  most  important  pursuits  of 
civilized  life.  Drawing,  engraving,  the  scientific  princi 
ples  of  construction,  (as  distinguished  from  those  founded 
in  natural  or  conventional  taste,)  are  of  daily  use  in  civil 
engineering,  in  military  and  marine  architecture,  in  pre 
serving  and  making  known  the  discoveries  of  the  natu 
ralist,  the  observations  of  the  anatomist,  the  inventions  of 
the  mechanician,  and,  in  general,  all  the  improvements 
of  natural  and  medical  science. 

But,  that  quick  sensibility  to  the  beauties  of  form  and 
proportion,  that  relish  for  purity  of  design  and  simplicity 
of  execution,  which  necessarily  result  from  a  familiarity 
with  works  of  taste,  have  a  still  broader,  and  (though  less 
distinctly  perceptible  in  their  operation)  scarcely  a  less 
efficient  influence  upon  most  of  the  arts  of  civilization, 
upon  commerce  and  manufactures.  The  beneficial  effects 
of  good  taste  are  to  be  found,  even  where  you  would  least 
suspect  its  presence.  It  every  where  silently  excludes 
wanton  superfluity,  or  useless  expenditure  in  labour  or 
ornament.  It  inculcates  a  wise  and  dignified  economy. 
It  prompts  art  to  achieve  its  ends  by  the  simplest  means. 
It  gives  to  the  productions  of  mechanical  skill  all  the  du 
rability  and  elegance,  of  which  they  may  be  susceptible, 
by  lending  to  them  those  forms,  proportions,  combinations 
of  colours,  and  agreeable  associations,  which,  because  they 
are  most  simply  and  obviously  fitted  to  their  peculiar  pur 
poses,  or  are  congruous  to  natural  principles  of  man's  phy- 


126  ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

sical  or  moral  constitution,  have  pleased  for  ages,  and  will 
ever  continue  to  please ;  whilst  the  caprices  of  fashion,  and 
the  cumbrous  splendour  of  gaudy  luxury,  are  inevitably 
doomed  to  become  in  a  very  few  years,  offensive  or  ridicu 
lous.  The  manufactures  of  England  and  France,  as  they 
are  at  this  day,  compared  with  what  they  were  half  a  cen 
tury  ago,  present  a  signal  instance  of  the  operation  of  this 
principle  in  assisting  to  improve  the  domestic  comforts  of 
life,  and  to  augment  at  once  private  wealth  and  national 
resources.  It  is  true,  that  this  magnificent  result  must  be 
mainly  ascribed  to  the  splendid  improvements  of  modern 
science,  and  the  application  of  its  discoveries  to  practical 
uses.  But  when,  as  if  to  prove  that  knowledge  was  not  only 
power,  but  wealth  also,  Mathematics  and  Chemistry  is 
sued  from  the  library  of  the  student,  and  the  cell  of  the 
alchemist,  to  mix  in  the  pursuits  of  commerce  and  indus 
try,  pure  Taste  followed  silently  in  their  train ;  and  that 
same  power,  which  had  anxiously  watched  over  the  in 
spirations  of  literary  genius,  and  had  directed  the  boldest 
flights  of  poetry,  eloquence,  and  painting,  may  now  often 
be  found  in  the  workshop  of  the  mechanic,  or  by  the  loom 
of  the  manufacturer,  superintending  their  labours  with 
just  as  patient  a  diligence,  and  as  unwearied  a  zeal. 

But  to  be  tli us  extensively  useful,  taste  must  become 
popular.  It  must  not  be  regarded  as  the  peculiar  posses 
sion  of  painters,  connoisseurs,  or  diletanti.  The  arts 
must  be  considered  as  liberal,  in  their  ancient  and  truest 
sense,  quia  libero  dignce,  as  being  worthy  of  the  coun 
tenance  and  knowledge  of  every  freeman. 

Leaving  the  consideration  of  this  their  indirect  utility 
in  other  occupations  of  industry,  let  us  now  view  them  as 
they  are  in  themselves. 

There  is  no  walk  of  the  elegant  arts  where  our  de 


ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.  127 

fects  in  science  and  taste  are  more  palpable  than  in  that  of 
Architecture.  "The  Genius  of  architecture,"  said  Mr. 
Jefferson,  an  ardent  votary,  and  a  skilful  and  experienced 
judge  of  that  classical  and  most  useful  art — "  the  Genius 
of  architecture  seems  to  have  shed  her  maledictions  over 
this  land."  Forty  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  pub 
lication  of  the  Notes  on  Virginia,  and  during  that  period, 
we  have  advanced  with  unparalleled  rapidity  in  numbers, 
wealth,  power,  letters,  science:  but,  with  some  few  brilliant 
exceptions,  we  have  done  very  little  to  prove  that  this  curse 
has  yet  passed  away. 

When  a  foreigner  lands  upon  our  shores — I  do  not 
speak  of  the  bigoted  and  prejudiced  tourist,  who  comeshere 
only  to  gather  materials  for  calumny,  but  of  such  a  man 
as  most  of  us  have  probably  known  many,  one  instructed  in 
the  arts  and  versed  in  the  learning  of  Europe,  who  cherishes 
as  deep  a  reverence  as  any  of  us  for  our  free  institutions,  and 
as  ardent  a  desire  for  the  triumph  of  those  principles  of 
which  our  republic  is  the  depository  and  safeguard — find 
ing  here,  as  he  does,  much  to  admire,  much  surpassing 
his  warmest  expectation,  the  first  among  several  sources 
of  his  disappointment,  arises  from  the  general  taste  arid 
character  of  our  public  edifices.  He  cannot  expect  to  find 
upon  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  the  gorgeous  splendours  of 
Versailles  or  Blenheim,  and  still  less  the  lengthened 'aisles 
and  fretted  vaults,  the  towering  domes,  and  sumptuous 
decorations  of  ecclesiastical  pomp  ;  but  every  thought  of 
freedom,  and  glory,  and  patriotism,  recalls  to  his  mind 
some  recollection  of  the  exquisite  works  of  republican  an 
tiquity.  He  looks  around  him,  and,  it  need  not  be  added, 
with  disappointment. 

There  is,  in  fact,  scarcely  any  single  circumstance, 
that  can  contribute  more  powerfully  towards  elevating  the 


128  ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS* 

reputation  of  a  people  abroad,  than  the  grandeur  or  beau 
ty  of  their  public  structures,  nor  is  there  any  manner  in 
which  a  republican  government  can  so  appropriately  ex 
hibit  its  magnificence.  The  tinsel  trappings,  the  robes 
and  pageantry  of  office,  that  have  been  affected  by  some 
free  states,  or  states  striving  to  be  free,  are  not  in  harmo 
ny  with  the  general  simplicity  of  republican  manners,  and 
in  their  own  nature  are  almost  as  selfish  as  the  show  and 
pomp  of  patrician  luxury.  They  may  gratify  or  inflate 
the  individual,  who,  so  bedecked,  struts  his  restless  hour 
upon  the  stage  of  public  life,  but  they  add  very  little  dignity 
to  the  state  which  bestows  them.  But  a  noble  hall  for 
the  purposes  of  legislation  or  justice  or  a  grand  pile  of 
buildings  for  the  uses  of  learning,  is  the  immediate  pro 
perty  of  the  people,  and  forms  a  portion  of  the  inheritance  of 
the  humblest  citizen.  An  enlightened  patriotism  should, 
indeed,  rest  upon  much  more  solid  ground,  but  no  man, 
who  knows  and  feels  that  even  in  our  best  and  wisest 
moments,  we  can  never  become  wholly  creatures  of  rea 
son,  will  object  to  the  aid  of  local  pride,  and  natural  asso 
ciation,  to  strengthen  and  animate  his  love  of  country. 
The  ancient  legislators  understood  the  force  of  such  prin 
ciples  well.  In  the  mind  of  an  ancient  Greek,  the  history 
of  his  country,  her  solemn  festivals,  her  national  rites,  her 
legislation,  her  justice,  were  indissolubly  combined  with 
the  images  of  every  thing  that  was  beautiful  or  sublime  in 
art.  Every  scholar  knows,  too,  how  much  the  remem 
brance  of  the  Capitolii  Arx  alt  a,  the  lofty  majesty  of  the 
capitol,  entered  into  every  sentiment  of  love  and  venera 
tion,  which  the  Roman  citizen,  when  Rome  was  free,  en 
tertained  for  his  native  city.  That  venerable  and  vast 
structure  had  been  reared  at  the  very  commencement  of 
the  commonwealth,  by  some  of  its  greatest  men,  on  a  scale 


ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS.  129 

of  grandeur  and  magnificence,  far  beyond  the  needs  or 
the  wealth  of  their  times,  in  a  spirit  prophetic  of  the  fu 
ture  empire  of  Rome.  Unlike  the  short-  lived  archi 
tectural  works  of  our  own  country  which  scarcely  outlast 
their  founders,  it  stood  for  centuries,  a  witness,  as  it  were, 
and  partaker,  of  all  Rome's  triumphs  and  greatness,  a  si 
lent  and  awful  monitor  frowning  rebuke  upon  her  crimes 
and  factions. 

When  danger  threatened  from  without,  or  civil  discord 
raged  within — when  the  Carthaginian  was  at  the  gates,  or 
brother  was  armed  against  brother  in  the  Forum,  it  was 
there,  that  the  sublime  conception  of  a  great  and  classical 
modem  painter,  was,  again  and  again,  more  than  realised  ; 
for  the  rebellious  or  the  timid  remembered  that 
they  were  Romans,  when,  in  their  mind's  eye,  they  be 
held  on  the  sacred  walls  of  the  Capitol,  the  armed  Ge 
nius  of  their  country,  followed  by  Fortune  as  her  faithful 
and  obedient  companion,  and  casting  upon  them  a  with 
ering  look  of  reproof.  * 

Something  of  this  moral  effect,  it  is  always  in  the  pow 
er  of  the  true  and  learned  architect  to  communicate  to  all 
his  greater  works.  The  taste,  the  rules,  the  character  of 
architecture,  as  well  as  its  materials,  having  not  less  the 
expression  of  durability  than  the  reality  of  it,  tend  to  lift 
the  mind  above  the  "  ignorant  present,"  connecting  our 
thoughts  with  the  past,  expanding  them  into  the  future, 
Of  all  the  achievements  of  human  skill  or  industry,  this 
noble  art  approaches  most  nearly  to  the  sublimity  and 
vastness  of  nature  ;  and  it  is  well  worthy  of  remark,  that 
when  the  great  poet  of  truth  and  nature  so  beautifully  mo. 
ralises  his  scene,  and  paints  in  a  few  impressive  words,  the 

*  Poussin,  in  the  Vision  of  Coraolinus. 
L 


130  ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS. 

fleeting  state  of  all  earthly  things,  it  is  in  architecture 
alone  that  he  can  find  any  material  image  of  the  power 
and  talent  of  man,  worthy  to  be  associated  with  the  migh 
ty  works  of  his  Creator ; 

"The  cloud-capt  towers,  the  gorgeous jmlaces,. 
The  solemn  temples,  the  great  globe  itself, 
Yea,  all  which  it  inherit,  shall  dissolve." 

Nor  will  a  benevolent  mind  overlook,  or  a  wise  states 
man  despise,  theinfluence  such  displays  of  public  grandeur 
may  have  in  imparting  "an  hour's  importance  to  the  poor 
man's  heart,"  in  soothing  the  natural  jealousies  which 
may  arise  in  his  breast,  and  enabling  him  for  a  time  to 
forget  the  comparative  hardships  of  his  lot,  and  to  feel  a 
more  real  and  palpable  community  of  interest  with  his 
wealthy  neighbour. 

Had  the  architecture  of  this  country,  like  that  of  anti 
quity,  been  of  native  growth,  it  is  not  improbable  that  it 
would  have  sooner  attained  to  the  character  I  have  de 
scribed.  But  it  has  fared  with  this  art  as  with  our  lite 
rature;  we  have  borrowed  most  of  it  from  England  and 
France,  and  by  no  means  from  the  best  models  which 
those  countries  afford.  It  is  only  within  a  few  years  that 
we  have  begun  to  think  for  ourselves,  or  to  draw  directly 
from  the  purer  fountains  of  antiquity.  Hence  it  is  that 
when  our  increasing  riches  enabled  us  to  erect  large  and 
expensive  public  edifices,  instead  of  embodying  in  them 
those  pure  forms  and  scientific  proportions  of  Grecian  art 
which  have  been  admired  for  ages,  or,  wherever  they 
could  with  propriety  be  introduced,  correctly  imitating 
some  few  of  those  light  and  graceful,  or  those  solemn  ef 
fects  of  Gothic  architecture,  which  it  may  be  within  our 
power  to  execute  satisfactorily,  many  of  our  most  costly 


ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS.  131 

buildings  have  been  vitiated  by  the  predominance  of  that 
taste  which  prevailed  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  was  universal  in  Great-Bri 
tain  throughout  most  of  the  last  century,  though  it  has 
now  given  way  there,  as  it  did  at  an  earlier  period  in 
France,  to  a  much  chaster  style,  I  mean  that  corrup 
tion  of  the  Roman,  or  rather  Palladian  architecture,  which 
delights  in  great  profusion  of  unmeaning  ornament,  in 
piling  order  upon  order,  in  multitudes  of  small  and  use 
less  columns  and  mean  and  unnecessary  pilasters,  in 
numerous  and  richly  decorated  windows — in  short,  in 
that  ostentatious  and  elaborate  littleness,  which  strives  to 
supply  the  place  of  unity  and  dignity  by  lavish  embel 
lishment  and  minute  elegance  of  detail.  When  this  style 
is  carried  into  execution  in  buildings  of  poor  material^ 
and  where,  as  is  too  common  in  this  country,  artificial 
stone-work,  stucco,  wood,  lath,  plaster,  and  paint,  supply 
the  place  of  marble  or  freestone,  the  effect  is  exquisitely 
paltry.  It  reminds  the  spectator  of  the  tawdry  and  tar 
nished  finery  of  an  underling  player.  This,  too,  is  often 
made  more  conspicuous,  by  an  ambijious  or  ignorant  de 
parture  from  the  common  technical  rules  and  fixed  pro 
portions. 

But  in  its  very  best  estate,  this  style  of  architecture  can 
rise  to  little  more  than  a  ponderous  and  imposing  stateli- 
ness,  which,  though  produced  by  infinite  labour  and  im 
mense  expenditure,  is  still  poor  and  ineffective,  when 
compared  with  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of  the  works  of 
true  taste. 

Indeed  it  very  unfortunately  happens  that  the  marks 
of  this  false  taste  are  but  too  prominent  in  our  most  splen 
did  and  costly  public  building,  the  Capitol  of  the  United 
States, 


132  ADDRESS   ON  THE   FINE   ARTS. 

The  plans,  elevation,  and  decorations  of  this  grand  na 
tional  structure,  when  originally  adopted  shortly  after  the 
formation  of  our  present  constitution,  were  wholly  in  the 
style  of  Versailles  and  the  interior  courts  of  the  Louvre, 
according  to  the  old  school  of  French  architecture.  The 
more  classic  taste  of  Latrobe,  and  the  other  successive 
architects  who  were  subsequently  employed  on  the  build 
ing,  introduced  numerous  and  important  variations  and 
alterations  of  the  original  design,  with  a  view  to  over 
power  the  littleness  of  its  details  by  the  broader  and  nobler 
effect  of  their  improvements.  But,  in  spite  of  the  rich 
beauties  of  the  great  Portico  and  of  the  Loggia,  the  co 
lossal  proportions  and  stately  splendour  of  the  Represen 
tative  Hall,  (unrivalled  by  any  room  for  legislative  pur 
poses  in  the  civilized  world,)  as  well  as  of  the  bold  and 
massy  magnificence  of  many  other  portions  of  the  edi 
fice,  which  remind  one  of  the  gigantic  creations  of  Mar 
tin's  fancy,  the  Capitol  still  betrays  the  vices  of  its  primi 
tive  design.  It  not  only  wants  unity  of  effect  as  a  whole. 
but  is  subject  to  more  serious  objections  in  its  parts, 
arising  from  absence  of  congruity  and  convenience  for 
their  several  purposes.  All  these  defects  would  have  been 
avoided,  and  much  would  have  been  gained  in  economy 
and  utility,  as  well  as  grandeur,  had  a  more  cultivated 
taste  presided  over  the  commencement  of  the  work.  As 
it  is,  it  almost  deserves  the  harsh  criticism  applied  to  it 
by  an  architect  of  true  science,*  who  called  it  "a  magnifi 
cent  architectural  monster." 

In  our  few  attempts  at  Gothic  buildings,  we  have  been 
generally  unfortunate  in  aiming  at  too  much  for  our 
means.  Independently  of  their  very  peculiar  and  deeply 

*  The  late  George  HadfieW, 


ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS.  133 

interesting  associations,  which,  I  know  not  how,  throw 
back  the  architectural  remains  of  the  middle  ages  to  a 
much  remoter  antiquity  in  the  imagination  than  those  of 
Rome  or  Athens,  and  which  our  familiarity  with  the 
brief  and  recent  history  of  our  own  nation,  at  once  con 
tradicts  and  destroys — their  sublime  and  solemn  impres 
sion  is  in  a  great  degree  produced  by  their  admirable 
adaptation  to  the  ritual  of  the  Catholic  Church,  by  the 
sense  of  the  years  consumed  in  their  erection,  of  difficul 
ties  triumphantly  surmounted,  of  toil,  and  labour,  and 
skill,  unbounded  and  unwearied,  expended  not  with  a 
view  to  any  of  those  purposes,  for  which  Protestant 
churches  are  peculiarly  destinedj  but  for  solemnity,  pomp, 
impression,  and  varied  rich  ceremonial.  All  attempts  to 
mimic  this  upon  a  small  scale,  necessarily  partake  of  the 
insignificance  of  a  builder's  model.  If  we  imitate  the 
architects  of  the  middle  ages,  we  should  take  them  as  our 
masters  throughout,  and  apply  the  same  style  of  construc 
tion  and  decoration  on  the  same  scale  that  they  did  ;  and, 
therefore,  in  our  places  of  worship,  we  should  be  content 
with  copying  their  simpler  and  less  adorned  chapels  and 
halls,  and  smaller  parochial  churches,  without  making  the 
vain  attempt  to  exhibit  the  vast  proportions,  the  number 
less  and  exquisite  minuter  beauties,  and  the  infinity  of  pic 
turesque  combinations  of  Salisbury  Cathedral,  or  York 
Minster,  in  the  cheapest  and  least  durable  materials,  and 
within  the  limits  of  a  few  square  yards. 

Besides  these  faults,  most  of  our  architects  are  very  de 
ficient  in  what  may  be  termed  the  painting  of  their  own 
art — that  power,  too  rare  elsewhere  as  well  as  here,  of 
giving  expression  to  buildings,  of  making  their  appear 
ance  announce  their  uses,  of  assimilating  the  style  of  or 
nament  to  the  objects  to  which  they  are  applied,  of  filling 


134  ADDRESS   ON  TttE   PINE   ARTS. 

the  mind  with  those  sensations  most  consonant  to  the 
uses,  whether  of  amusement  or  learning,  of  legislation,  or 
of  devotion,  for  which  they  were  erected. 

Our  need  of  improvement  in  this  art  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  public  buildings  of  our  national  or  state 
capitals.  Our  domestic  architecture  is  still  almost  exclu 
sively  copied,  and  sometimes  not  well  copied,  from  the 
common  English  books,  without  variety,  and  with  little 
adaptation  to  our  climate  and  habits  of  life. 

Our  better  sort  of  country-seats  have  often  an  air  of  too 
much  pretension  for  the  materials,  and  their  scale,  in  size 
and  expense.  While  we  despise  the  humble  beauties  and 
picturesque  comforts  of  the  cottage,  we  rarely  attain  to 
the  splendour  of  the  chateau  or  villa.  In  short,  our  coun 
trymen  have  yet  to  learn,  that  good  taste  and  proportion, 
so  valuable  in  their  effects,  cost  nothing. 

These  defects  of  our  rural  architecture,  are  the  more 
to  be  regretted,  because  it  is  in  the  midst  of  nature  that 
beautiful  art  always  appears  to  its  highest  advantage. 
This  contrast  is  so  pleasing,  that  any  tolerably  propor 
tioned  building  derives  a  thousand  unexpected  beauties 
from  being  surrounded  by  rich  natural  scenery.  The 
colonnade,  the  portico,  or  the  tower,  can  never  appear 
with  half  so  much  grace  and  majesty,  as  when  seen 
through  foliage,  or  "  bosomed  high  in  tufted  trees." 

I  have  made  these  remarks,  harsh  as  some  of  them 
may  seem,  with  the  more  confidence,  because  it  is  evident 
that  public  opinion  is  rapidly  awakening  to  a  true  sense 
of  the  importance  of  this  subject ;  good  taste  is  every 
where  struggling  forwards,  and  within  these  few  years 
several  edifices  have  been  erected  of  the  purest  and  no 
blest  character.  Mr.  Jefferson's  patriotic  hope  seems  now 
about  to  be  realized,  for  "as  sparks  of  science  fall  upon 


ADDRESS   ON   THE    PINE   ARTS.  135 

minds  of  natural  taste,  they  kindle  up  their  genius  and 
produce  rapid  reform  in  this  elegant  and  useful  art." 

Such  an  improvement  is  not  solely  directed  to  the  mere 
gratification  of  taste,  and  to  giving  pleasure  to  the  critical 
eye  of  the  architect  or  connoisseur.  Good  taste  is  always 
the  parent  of  utility.  Whilst  in  works  of  public  dignity 
it  attains  the  grandest  results  by  the  simplest  means ;  in 
private  edifices  it  suppresses  false  and  gaudy  ornament/it 
prevents  all  sacrifice  of  convenience  to  ostentation,  it  at 
tempts  no  unattainable  magnificence,  no  combinations  of 
irreconcilable  qualities.  When  it  is  once  firmly  establish 
ed,  and  good  models  have  become  familiar,  it  diffuses  its 
influence  abroad  on  every  side,  directs  the  labours  of  the 
mechanic,  and,  where  it  cannot  appear  in  positive  excel 
lence,  is  scarcely  less  useful  in  banishing  all  that  is  un 
necessary  and  incongruous,  even  to  the  smallest  details. 

Without  assenting  in  full  to  that  metaphysical  theory, 
which  resolves  all  beauty  into  the  perception  of  utility, 
still,  though  use  be  not  the  efficient  cause,  it  is  the 
inseparable  companion  of  true  taste,  and  the  same  facul 
ty  which  regulated  the  proportions  of  the  column,  or  the 
composition  of  the  frieze;  presides  with  equal  care  over 
the  minutest  arrangement  conducing  to  personal  conve 
nience  or  pleasure.  The  prevalence  of  sound  architec 
tural  science,  in  any  community,  may  be  traced  as  dis 
tinctly  in  the  increased  comforts  of  the  hospital,  the  im 
proved  commodicusness  of  the  prison  or  penitentiary,  and 
the  bold  and  secure  lightness  of  the  bridge,  as  in  the 
splendour  of  the  palace,  or  the  massive  dignity  of  the  ca 
thedral. 

I  could  willingly  dilate  much  longer  upon  this  sub 
ject.  Without  pretending  to  any  exact  science  in  this 
department,  I  have  always  found  its  study  full  of  peculiar 


136  ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS. 

charms.  In  its  philosophy,  it  is  connected  with  some  of 
the  most  refined  and  curious  speculations  of  intellectual 
science ;  in  its  theory,  it  brings  together  in  very  singular, 
yet  most  harmonious  union,  the  rigid  and  exact  rules  of 
mathematics,  and  the  undefinable  and  unexpressible,  but 
not  less  certain,  laws  of  sentiment  and  taste ;  in  its  his 
tory,  it  is  throughout  interwoven  with  that  of  the  progress 
of  society,  of  national  character,  and  of  genius;  in  its 
practice,  it  contributes  at  every  moment  to  private  happi 
ness  and  public  grandeur. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  the  sister  Art  of  Painting.  Why 
should  I  expatiate  on  the  uses  and  charms  of  that,  with 
which  all  who  hear  me  must  be  familiar  ?  It  is  so  inti 
mately  connected  with  the  elegant  literature,  the  general 
cultivation,  and  even  the  amusements  of  our  times, 
that  those  who  have  no  practical  skill  in  it,  and  who 
have  never  seen  any  original  work  of  the  very  great 
masters,  have  some  understanding  of  its  theory,  and 
through  conversation,  books,  engravings,  and  copies, 
know  and  feel  much  of  the  extent  and  majesty  of  its 
powers.  It  is  a  natural  and  universal  language,  the  lan 
guage  of  description  through  the  eye,  in  its  elements 
common  to  all  mankind,  but  susceptible  of  an  indefinite 
and  never-ending  improvement,  as  it  becomes  instructed 
by  close  observation,  disciplined  by  practice,  judged  of  by 
a  quick  natural  sense  of  the  beautiful  or  the  grand,  elevat 
ed  by  moral  dignity  of  thought,  or  animated  by  deep 
intensity  of  feeling.  Through  the  senses  it  awakens  the 
imagination,  and  by  her  magic  aid,  reanimates  the  dead, 
acts  over  before  us  the  great  deeds  of  history,  realizes  to 
our  eyes  the  most  glorious  visions  of  poetry,  and  can 
transfer  to  a  few  feet  of  canvass  the  unbounded  vastness 
of  nature's  scenes,  the  cheering  breath  of  her  airs  and 


ADDRESS    ON   THE   FINE   ARTS.  137 

heavens,  her  changes  of  season,  and  "  glad  vicissitudes  of 
night  and  day." 

The  great  artist  moulders  in  the  tomb.  But  his  works 
still  live  in  the  self-sustaining  freshness  of  nature.  Age 
after  age  passes  away,  and  they  still  beam  forth  beauty 
upon  one  generation  after  another.  In  calm  disdain,  as 
it  were,  of  the  petty  and  transitory  interests,  pursuits, 
opinions,  passions  of  the  day,  they  continue  with  unde- 
caying  power,  as  years  roll  on,  to  address  themselves  to 
the  great  principles  of  our  common  nature,  soothing  the 
cares,  elevating  the  thoughts,  stirring  in  the  very  depth  of 
the  heart  the  thrilling  emotions  of  natural  sympathy,  or 
awakening  there  the  sleeping  sense  of  the  great,  the  sub 
lime,  or  the  holy. 

Many  of  us  have  admired,  and  studied,  and  loved — all 
of  us  have  heard  and  read,  of  the  pure  and  matchless 
beauties,  the  intense  yet  noble  expression,  the  graceful 
grandeur,  the  varied  and  lofty  invention  of  Raffaele, — the 
harmonious  brilliancy  of  Titian's  colouring, — Guide's 
never-tiring  sweetness, — the  splendour,  the  opulent  fer 
tility  of  the  magnificent  Reubens, — the  richness,  the 
truth,  the  magic  of  Rembrandt's  "  gorgeous  gloom," — the 
severe  and  learned  grace  of  Poussin, — the  Elysian  and 
ever- verdant  imagination  of  Claude,  combining  all  that  is 
venerable  or  grand  in  antiquity  or  architecture,  in  poetry 
or  mythology,  with  all  that  is  most  bright  and  beautiful 
in  nature. 

In  all  this,  what  is  there  but  the  triumph  of  mind  ?  It 
is  the  separating  of  the  excellent,  and  fair,  and  durable, 
and  intellectual,  and  universally  true,  from  that  which  is 
little,  and  temporary,  and  sensual,  and  accidental.  It  is 
the  stripping  off  the  grossness  of  sense  from  the  forms  of 


138  ADDRESS    ON   THE    FINE    ARTS. 

matter,  and  investing  them  with  the  dignity  of  intellect 
and  the  expression  of  sentiment. 

Can  we  then,  as  Americans,  be  content  to  look  with 
indifference  upon  the  progress  of  such  an  art?  Can  we 
coolly  say,  "All  this  is  well  for  Europe,  for  the  adorning 
of  courts  and  palaces,  for  the  amusement  of  princes,  or  to 
enable  wealth  and  luxury,  wearied  out  with  their  own 
existence,  to  fill  up  the  languid  pauses  of  life  with  new 
gratifications  ?"  Oh,  not  so.  Nothing  is  unworthy  or 
unfitting  the  attention  of  a  free  and  wise  people,  which 
can  afford  scope  for  the  employment  of  talent,  or  can 
adorn  or  gladden  life  ;  least  of  all,  should  we  be  indiffer 
ent  towards  an  art,  thus  admirably  fitted  for  the  mixed 
nature  of  man,  an  art  at  once  mechanical,  moral,  and  in 
tellectual,,  addressing  itself  to  every  part  of  man's  consti 
tution,  acting  through  his  senses  upon  his  imagination, 
through  his  imagination  upon  his  reason  and  his  heart. 

But,  although  it  is  in  the  hand  of  the  great  epic  paint 
er,  who  fixes  upon  his  canvass  the  sentiment  of  religion, 
or  the  glowing  conceptions  of  poetic  fancy,  that  the  pen 
cil  has  gained  its  chief  honours,  it  is  in  another  and  much 
humbler  department,  that  this  art  appeals  more  directly 
to  the  patronage,  the  judgment,  and  the  natural  affections 
of  all  of  us.  It  is  perhaps  in  portrait  painting,  that  we 
are  to  look  for  some  of  its  best  and  most  extended  uses. 

I  have  called  it  an  humble  department  of  the  art,  be 
cause  such  is  the  rank  assigned  to  it  by  the  aristocracy  of 
European  taste,  and  because  it  really  is  so  in  respect  to 
the  narrow  field  it  presents  for  the  exertion  of  fancy  or 
science;  yet  Reynolds  has  pronounced  that  the  power  of 
dignifying  and  animating  the  countenance,  of  impressing 
upon  it  the  appearance  of  wisdom  or  virtue,  of  affection 
or  innocence,  requires  a  nobleness  of  conception,  which } 


ADDRESS    ON   THE    FINE    ARTS.  139 

says  he,  "goes  beyond  any  thing  in  the  mere  exhibition 
of  the  most  perfect  forms." 

While,  too,  our  relish  and  judgment,  with  respect  to 
other  productions  of  art,  are  only  so  far  natural  as  that 
they  are  founded  in  a  sensibility,  and  a  power  of  observa 
tion  and  comparison,  common  to  all  men  in  full  posses 
sion  of  their  faculties,  but  which  require  to  be  developed, 
exercised,  and  disciplined,  by  experience  or  study;  Por 
trait  appeals  more  directly  to  the  comprehension  of  every 
one.  Though  it  is  sometimes  applied  to  the  gratification 
of  vanity,  it  much  oftener  ministers  to  the  best  feelings 
of  the  human  heart.  It  rescues  from  oblivion  the  once- 
loved  features  of  the  absent  or  the  dead ;  it  is  the  memo 
rial  of  filial  or  parental  affection ;  it  perpetuates  the  pre 
sence  of  the  mild  virtue,  the  heartfelt  kindness,  the  hum 
ble  piety,  which  in  other  days,  filled  our  affections  and 
cheered  our  lives.  In  the  hour  of  affliction  and  bereave 
ment,  to  use  the  words  of  a  living  poet — for  it  is  impossi 
ble  to  speak  feelingly  of  the  arts,  without  borrowing  the 
language  of  poetry ;  not  that  poetry  for  which  we  turn  to 
books,  but  that  which  lives  in  the  memory,  because  it  ut 
ters  the  voice  of  nature,  and  seems  but  to  respond  to  the 
workings  of  our  own  thoughts,  and  to  speak  the  secrets 
of  our  own  breasts.  In  that  hour 

Then  for  a  beam  of  joy  to  light, 

In  Memory's  sad  and  wakeful  eye, 
Or  banish  from  the  noon  of  night 

Her  dreams  of  deeper  agony. 

Shall  Song  its  witching  cadence  roll, 

Yea,  even  the  tenderest  airs  repeat, 
"Which  breath'd  when  soul  was  knit  to  soul, 

And  heart  to  heart  responsive  beat? 


140  ADDRESS    ON   THE   FINE    ARTS, 

What  visions  wake — to  charm — to  melt ! 

The  loved,  the  lost,  the  dead  are  near  : 
Oh,  hush  that  strain,  too  deeply  felt, 

And  cease  that  solace  too  severe. 

But  thou,  serene  and  silent  Art, 

By  Heaven's  own  light,  wert  taught  to  lend, 
A  milder  solace  to  the  heart, 

The  sacred  image  of  a  Friend. 

No  spectre  forms  of  pleasure  fled, 

Thy  softening,  sweet'ning  tints  restore, 

For  thou  canst  give  us  back  the  dead, 
Even  in  the  loveliest  looks  they  wore. 


It  is  an  exalted  and  sacred  office  which  art  discharges, 
when  it  can  thus  administer  to  the  charities  of  domestic 
life.  But  Painting  becomes  public  and  national,  when  it 
is  employed  in  perpetuating  the  expression  of  the  mind 
speaking  in  the  features  of  the  brave,  the  good,  the  truly 
great — of  those  whose  valour  made  us  free,  or  by  whose 
wisdom  we  may  become  wise  ;  of  the  heroes  of  our  own 
country,  of  the  patriots  of  our  own  history,  of  the  sages 
and  men  of  genius  of  all  countries,  who  have  left  us' those 
works,  which  form  the  intellectual  patrimony  of  civilized 
man — of  the  heroes  of  humanity,  of  the  benefactors  of 
the  human  race.  Then  it  becomes,  indeed,  a  teacher  of 
morality  ;  it  then  assists  in  the  education  of  our  youth  ;  it 
gives  form  and  life  to  their  abstract  perceptions  of  duty 
or  excellence  ;  and,  in  a  free  state  and  a  moral  communi 
ty,  where  the  arts  are  thus  made  the  handmaids  of  vir 
tue,  when  the  imagination  of  the  young  patriot  calls  up 
the  sacred  image  of  his  country,  it  comes  surrounded  with 
the  venerable  forms  of  the  wisest  and  best  of  her  sons. 

I  well  remember  the  vivid  impressions  produced  upon 
my  own  mind  several  years  ago,  when  I  first  saw  the 


ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.         141 

University  of  Oxford.  The  quiet  grandeur  and  the 
pomp  of  literary  ease  which  are  there  displayed,  did  not 
wholly  disarm  that  dislike>  I  could  not  help  feeling  to 
wards  an  establishment,  which,  possessing  so  much  learn 
ing  and  so  much  real  talent,  had  for  the  last  century,  in  its 
public  and  academic  capacity,  done  so  very  little  for  the  im 
provement  of  education,  and  had  so  long  been  the  sanctu 
ary  of  unworthy  prejudices,  and  the  solid  barrier  against 
liberal  principles.  But  when  I  beheld  her  halls  and  cha 
pels,  filled  with  the  monuments,  and  statues,  and  pictures, 
of  the  illustrious  men  who  had  been  educated  in  her  seve 
ral  colleges  ;  when  I  saw  the  walls  covered  with  the 
portraits  of  those  great  scholars  and  eloquent  divines, 
whose  doctrines  are  taught,  or  whose  works  are  daily  con 
sulted  by  the  clergy  of  all  sects  throughout  our  republic — 
of  the  statesman  and  judges,  whose  opinions  and  decisions 
are  every  day  cited  as  authorities  at  our  bar  and  in  our 
legislative  bodies — of  the  poets  and  orators,  whose  works 
form  the  study  of  our  youth  and  the  amusement  of  our 
leisure,  I  could  not  but  confess  that  the  young  man  who 
lived  and  studied  in  such  a  presence,  must  be  dull  and 
brutal  indeed,  if  he  was  not  sometimes  roused  into  aspira 
tions  after  excellence,  if  the  countenances  of  the  great  men 
who  looked  down  upon  him,  did  not  sometimes  fill  his 
soul  with  generous  thoughts  and  high  contemplations. 

Why  should  not  we  also  have  every  where  the  same 
excitements  to  laudable  exertion  and  honourable  ambi 
tion  ?  We  should  spread  abroad  over  our  whole  land 
this  mixed  and  mighty  influence 

Of  the  Manners,  of  the  Arts — 
Which  mould  a  nation's  soul, 
And  cling  around  their  hearts. 

We,  too,  have  great  men  to  honour,  and  talent  enough 
M 


142  ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

to  do  honour,  to  them.  In  our  public  places  and  squares1; 
in  our  courts  of  justice,  our  legislative  halls,  and  seminaries 
of  education,  the  eye  should  every  where  meet  with  some 
memorial  of  departed  worth,  some  tribute  to  public  service 
or  illustrious  talent. 

Sculpture,  in  its  rudest  form,  seems  to  be  the  instinc 
tive  effort  of  nature,  in  the  early  stages  of  society,  to  ex 
press  veneration  and  to  perpetuate  honour  or  gratitude  by 
the  help  of  imitative  skill.  Nor  does  it  lose  its  fitness 
for  these  uses  in  the  highest  stage  of  refined  and  cultivated 
art,  although  then,  in  place  of  the  humble  imitation  of  indi 
vidual  nature,  it  addresses  and  exercises  the  imagination, 
the  taste,  and  intellect.  The  durability  of  the  material 
suggests  to  the  mind  grand  associations  of  past  times,  and 
presents  to  it  in  dim  and  shadowy  perspective,  the  idea 
of  long  successions  of  future  generations,  who  will  gaze 
upon  the  form  now  before  our  eyes,  with  thoughts  and 
feelings  kindred  to  our  own.  But  at  the  same  time,  the 
severity  with  which  this  art  rejects  the  aid  of  colour  and 
every  other  adjunct  tending  to  illusion,  compels  and  ha 
bituates  the  rudest  mind  to  an  effort  of  intellectual  abstrac 
tion,  whereby  the  undivided  attention  is  fixed  upon  the 
majesty  of  expression,  or  the  truth  and  grace  of  form. 

Though  our  sculptors  may  never  vie  with  those  of  an 
tiquity,  in  the  expression  of  faultless  beauty  and  ideal 
majesty,  yet  they  can  always  find  a  sufficiently  ennobling 
employment  in  the  commemoration  of  our  great  men, 
Statuary,  austere  and  dignified  in  its  character,  is  fitted 
chiefly  for  public  uses,  and  of  all  the  arts  it  is  that  for 
which  private  patronage  can  do  least,  and  which  most  re 
quires  the  fostering  care  of  public  munificence.  Our  na 
tive  sculptors  have  already  given  ample  proof  that  we  no 
longer  need  the  chisel  of  Canova  or  Chantrey,  to  com- 


ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.  143 

memorate  our  Washington  and  Franklin,  and  the  sages 
who  shared  their  labours,  or  who  may  hereafter  follow  in 
their  footsteps. 

We  have  already  successfully  called  in  the  aid  of  En 
graving.  This  is  an  art  of  less  dignity  and  fame  ;  but 
when  I  consider  its  multiplied  uses  to  science,  letters,  and 
taste,  and  the  various  and  very  peculiar  excellencies  of 
which  it  is  susceptible,  I  can  scarcely  call  it  an  inferior  one ; 
for  it  is  not,  as  the  uninformed  are  apt  to  suppose,  a  purely 
mechanical  occupation.  Whilst  in  itself  it  affords  room 
for  the  exercise  of  no  ordinary  talent,  it  stands  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  other  arts,  which  printing  does  to  Eloquence 
and  Poetry,  and  by  bringing  their  production  within  the 
reach  of  many  thousands,  to  whom  they  would  have  other 
wise  been  wholly  inaccessible  more  than  compensates  for 
the  loss  of  immediate  impression  by  wider  diffusion  and 
greater  usefulness. 

When  such  an  artist  as  our  associate  Durand,  has  com 
pleted  an  admirable  engraving  from  one  of  the  great 
est  scenes  of  our  history,*  or  of  any  history,  in  which  the 
grand  truth  of  the  story  takes  a  stronger  hold  upon  the 
mind,  than  mere  fancy  can  ever  gain,  he  has  not  only 
done  honour  to  his  own  talent,  but  he  has  discharged  a 
part  of  the  debt  of  gratitude  he  owes  his  country.  He 
has  enabled  every  one  of  us  to  bring  the  great  scene  and 
the  great  actors  of  our  Independence  within  our  own  doors, 
to  make  them  as  it  were,  spectators  of  the  blessings  they 
have  earned  for  us,  to  place  them  before  the  eyes  of  our 
children — and,  when  our  sons  read  the  history  of  Grecian 
heroism,  or  of  English  virtue,  when  their  eyes  glisten, 

*  Durand's  engraving  of  TrurnbulPs  Declaration  of  Independence. 


144  ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

and  their  young  hearts  throb  wildly  with  the  kindling 
theme,  we  can  say  to  them,  "look  there,  remember  that 
we  too  had  our  Epaminondas  and  our  Hampden." 

So  great  is  the  effect  which  may  be  produced  by  such 
and  similar  means,  that  it  sometimes  happens  that  where 
a  people  has  degenerated  from  the  virtues  of  their  ances 
tors,  when  some  wide-wasting  corruption  has  tainted  their 
morals,  or  tyranny  has  trampled  down  their  liberties,  the 
arts  have  served  to  keep  the  mind  of  the  nation  vigorous 
and  lofty,  to  protect  its  talent  from  the  general  contagion, 
and  to  preserve  the  love  of  country  intense  and  ardent, 
though  without  hope  of  liberation,  and  without  the  con 
solation  of  power.  In  Italy, 

Ahi,  serva  Italia,  di  dolore  ostello, 
Nave  senza  nochiero  ;* 

in  lost,  enslaved,  distracted  Italy,  the  arts  still  watch, 
and  have  watched  for  centuries,  with  vestal  care  over 
the  flame  of  patriotism,  as  if  commissioned  by  Provi 
dence  to  preserve  it  from  extinction,  until  the  arrival 
of  that  hour  when  it  shall  kindle  up  again,  and  blaze 
into  high  and  unclouded  effulgence.  Italy,  divided 
as  it  has  been  for  ages  among  so  many  lords,  has 
still  one  common  feeling  and  one  common  pride.  It 
is  still  one  country — where  a  great  arid  fallen  nation, 
like  Marius  among  the  ruins  of  Carthage,  (such  as  the 
classic  hand  of  a  member  of  our  academy  has  por 
trayed  him,t)  sits  august  amidst  the  wrecks  of  former 
grandeur,  powerless  and  hopeless,  but  cherishing  an  un 
conquerable  will,  revolving  the  thoughts  and  breathing 
the  spirit  of  the  past. 

Foreign  criticism  has  contemptuously  told  us,  that  the 

*  Dante. 

f  Vanderlyn,  in  his  Marius  at  Carthage. 


ADDRESS    ON   THE   FtNE    ARTS.  145 

national  pride  of  Americans  rests  more  upon  the  antici 
pation  of  the  future,  than  on  the  recollections  of  the  past. 
Allowing  for  a  little  malicious  exaggeration,  this  is  not 
far  from  the  truth.  It  is  so.  It  ought  to  be  so.  Why 
should  it  not  be  so  ? 

Our  national  existence  has  been  quite  long  enough, 
and  its  events  sufficiently  various,  to  prove  the  value  and 
permanence  of  our  civil  and  political  establishments,  to 
dissipate  the  doubts  of  their  friends,  and  to  disappoint  the 
hopes  of  their  enemies.  Our  past  history  is  to  us  the 
pledge,  the  earnest,  the  type  of  the  greater  future.  We 
may  read  in  it  the  fortunes  of  our  descendants,  and  with 
an  assured  confidence  look  forward  to  a  long  and  conti 
nued  advance  in  all  that  can  make  a  people  great. 

If  this  is  a  theme  full  of  proud  thoughts,  it  is  also  one 
that  should  penetrate  us  with  a  deep  .and  solemn  sense 
of  duty.  Our  humblest  honest  efforts  to  perpetuate  the 
liberties,  or  animate  the  patriotism  of  this  people,  to  puri 
fy  their  morals,  or  to  excite  their  genius,  will  be  felt  long 
after  us,  in  a  widening  and  more  widening  sphere,  until 
they  reach  a  distant  posterity,  to  whom  our  very  names 
may  be  unknown. 

Every  swelling  wave  of  our  doubling  and  still  doubling 
population,  as  it  rolls  from  the  Atlantic  coast,  inland,  on 
ward  towards  the  Pacific,  must  bear  upon  its  bosom  the 
influence  of  the  taste,  learning,  morals,  freedom  of  this 
generation. 

Such  considerations  as  these  give  to  the  lasting  produc 
tions  of  our  Arts,  and  to  our  feeble  attempts  to  encourage 
them,  a  dignity  and  interest  in  the  eyes  of  the  enlighten 
ed  patriot,  which  he  who  looks  upon  them  solely  with  a 
view  to  their  immediate  uses  can  never  perceive. 

M* 


146  ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS. 

Nor  is  it  only  for  their  indirect  effect  upon  the  present 
or  the  future  state  of  society,  that  the  Arts  should  be  cul 
tivated  and  cherished. 

They  should  be  loved  and  fostered  for  themselves ;  be 
cause  they  call  forth  the  exercise  of  a  peculiar  sort  of  ta 
lent,  apparently  native  to  our  soil,  and  every  day  spring 
ing  up  fresh  and  vigorous  before  us.  Our  Arts  have 
heretofore  unfolded  and  expanded  themselves,  not  in  the 
genial  sunshine  of  wealth  and  patronage,  but  in  the  cold, 
bleak  shade  of  neglect  and  obscurity.  The  taste  of  our 
native  artists,  of  whom  so  many  have  risen  or  are  now 
rising,  here  and  in  Europe,  to  the  highest  honours  of  their 
profession,  was  not  formed  by  contemplating  the  noble 
remains  of  classical  antiquity,  or  the  beautiful  productions 
of  modern  Italy.  They  had  not  even  the  fainter  stimu 
lant  of  listening  to  the  language  of  that  affected  and  ex 
aggerated  enthusiasm,  that  while  it  is  often  wholly  insen 
sible  to  the  excellence  to  which  it  does  outward  homage, 
can  sometimes  excite  in  others  the  warmth  it  but 
feigns  itself.  Nature  was  their  only  teacher,  her  works 
their  great  Academy. 

Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  remarkable  fact, 
that  so  many  of  our  countrymen  should  have  become  thus 
distinguished,  far  beyond  the  natural  demand  of  the  coun 
try,  or  even  its  forced  patronage,  without  allowing  the 
existence  of  some  organic  physical  cause,  or  some  mental 
peculiarity,  strongly  impelling  talent  in  that  direction. 

In  spite  of  the  greatest  disadvantages,  and  with  little 
in  our  public  or  social  habits,  peculiarly  fitted  to  foster 
the  elegant  arts,  we  have  already  given  the  most  abun 
dant  and  unquestionable  proof  of  possessing  the  highest 
capabilities  of  success  in  them. 


ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS.  147 

But  the  names  and  the  works  of  men  of  genius,  be 
come  the  property  of  their  country.  They  form  a  rich 
and  lasting  possession,  which  it  is  a  legitimate  object  of 
patriotism  to  acquire  and  increase.  Older  nations,  in 
summing  up  the  long  catalogue  of  their  statesmen,  poets, 
and  scholars,  are  proud  to  add  to  it  such  names  as  those 
of  Angelo,  Canova,  Raffaelle,  Rembrandt,  Poussin, 
Claude,  Murillo,  Reubens,  Reynolds,  Lawrence.  Why 
should  we  not  do  the  same  ?  To  be  able  to  do  it,  very 
little  is  needed.  The  natural  talent  is  here ;  and,  when 
conscious  of  its  heaven-given  strength,  but  ignorant  or 
uncertain  how  to  apply  it,  it  heaves  and  pants  in  the 
young  breast,  and  rises  in  vain  aspirations  after  it  knows 
not  what,  or  wastes  itself  in  idle  and  blind  efforts,  how 
little  is  wanting  to  unveil  to  it  the  secret  of  its  own  pow 
ers,  to  give  to  it  a  steady  impulse  and  true  direction,  and 
enable  it  to  expand  and  dilate  itself  by  its  own  energies, 
to  the  full  stature  and  majestic  proportions  of  Genius  ! 

The  young  student  of  natural  susceptibility  and  talent, 
requires  but  a  little  instruction  in  some  of  the  technical 
and  almost  mechanical  parts  of  his  profession,  a  few 
models,  even  such  as  the  narrow  means  of  an  establish 
ment  like  ours  can  afford,  and  which  may  provoke  the 
scornful  smile  of  travelled  connoisseurs — some  good  casts 
from  the  master-pieces  of  ancient  statuary,  the  architec 
tural  publications  of  Stuart,  Wood  and  Piranesi,  some 
spirited  and  faithful  engravings  by  Edelinck,  Strange, 
Woolett,  and  Morghen,  from  the  best  works  of  the  great 
painters;  the  opportunity  of  studying  a  few  pictures, 
which,  though  they  may  not  rank  as  the  prodigies  of 
the  art,  are  of  real  excellence :  add  to  this,  something  of 
public  interest  to  cheer  and  animate  his  labours,  some 
thing  of  cultivated  taste  to  judge  and  reward  his  works ; 


148  ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE   ARTS. 

and  it  is  enough.  You  have  given  him  all  that  is  abso 
lutely  needful ;  the  way  is  now  open  to  him,  and  he 
treads  in  the  path  of  fame,  with  a  firm  and  rapid  step. 
You  have  done  well  and  wisely,  and  you  have  already 
your  reward.  You  have  given  a  great  man  to  your 
country.  His  name,  his  fame,  *  his  genius,  the  imagina 
tive  or  true,  the  gay  or  grand  productions  of  his  pencil  or 
chisel,  belong  to  us  all  and  to  our  children. 

But  at  length,  perhaps,  he  finds  that  our  scattered 
population,  the  equal  distribution  of  wealth  among  us, 
or  other  peculiarities  of  our  state  of  society  present,  if  not 
insuperable,  yet  certainly  very  serious  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  exercising  his  talent  on  the  scale,  and  the  sub 
jects  of  which  he  is  justly  conscious  that  it  is  worthy. 
Perhaps,  too,  he  hopes  to  build  up  that  talent  to  far  higher 
excellence,  by  the  assiduous  and  constant  study  of  those 
great  original  models,  which  age  after  age  has  gazed 
upon  with  increasing  wonder  and  admiration,  and  all 
have  agreed  in  pronouncing  to  be  the  great  examples  of 
Art.  He  leaves  his  native  land — it  may  be  for  ever. 
Does  he  therefore  rob  us  of  our  lot  and  portion  in  him? 
Shall  our  country  look  upon  him  as  an  outcast  and  un 
grateful  son?  Oh,  no. 

Go,  child  of  Genius — go,  whither  West,  and  so  many 
others  have  gone  before  you.  Go  where  your  high  du 
ties  call  you  ;  do  justice  to  that  art  which  you  love,  and 
to  yourself.  Go,  show  to  Europe  a  specimen  of  the  mind 
and  the  virtue  of  the  new  world ;  bear  with  you  the 
wishes,  the  hopes,  the  pride,  the  benedictions  of  your 
native  country  ;  for  she  well  knows  that  even  in  the 
giddiest  round  of  success  and  applause,  you  will  look 
with  an  undazzled  eye  upon  the  pomps  of  Europe ;  that 
you  will  never  blush  for  the  land  of  your  birth ;  that 


ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS.  149 

you  will  sympathize  with  all  its  fortunes,  ever  venerate 
its  institutions,  and  glory  in  its  honours. 

I  have  touched  very  briefly  upon  some  of  the  more 
prominent  points  of  my  abundant  and  diversified  sub 
ject  ;  and  that  of  necessity  so  rapidly  and  generally,  that 
I  have  rather  suggested  to  your  consideration  those  to 
pics  that  have  most  impressed  my  own  mind,  than  given 
to  them  that  developement  and  illustration  they  are  ca 
pable  of.  and  which  their  importance  so  richly  deserves. 
There  are  yet  many  more  unnoticed.  I  shall  speak  of 
but  one. 

It  is  that  general  moral  tendency  which  must  natu 
rally  result  from  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  of  taste,  as  it 
does  from  every  thing  in  science  or  literature,  which  ha 
bituates  man  to  look  for  enjoyment  elsewhere,  than  in 
selfishness  or  sensuality. 

I  do  not  claim  for  the  Arts,  the  holy  power  of  reform 
ing  vice,  or  illuminating  moral  darkness.  Without  Re 
ligion  and  her  most  fit  and  natural  attendants,  Education 
and  Freedom,  they  are  weak  and  feeble  agents  indeed. 
It  is  a  presumptuous  and  terrible  delusion  to  look  either 
to  Letters  or  the  Arts,  as  the  moral  guides  of  man,  and 
his  best  teachers  of  truth  and  duty.  But  in  their  proper 
place  and  sphere,  when  controlled  and  purified,  and 
elevated  by  holier  principles,  they  can,  and  they  do  con 
tribute  most  efficiently  to  the  moral  melioration  of  society. 
Placed  as  man  is,  in  a  world  where  on  every  side  is  pre 
sented  to  him  some  object  to  allure  or  exercise  his  appe 
tites,  passions,  affections,  feelings,  talents,  reason,  he  must 
find  something  to  occupy  the  better  part  of  his  nature,  or 
the  worse  will  be  active. 

Pleasing  and  elevating  as  is  the  study  of  the  elegant 
arts  considered  simply  as  an  exercise  of  taste  and  skill, 


150  ADDRESS    ON   THE   FINE   ARTS. 

it  is  besides  capable  of  producing  other  and  far  better 
results.  Its  immediate  effect  is  to  direct  the  attention 
more  closely  to  the  truth  of  nature.  It  next  leads  on  its 
real  votaries  from  the  pleasure  derived  from  the  mechani 
cal  imitation  of  nature's  ordinary  appearances  to  the 
deeper  delight  afforded  by  the  selection  of  whatever  is 
grand  or  graceful  in  her  forms,  powerful  or  lovely  in  her 
expression.  Then  it  is  that  new  susceptibilities  to  some 
of  the  purest  and  most  exquisite  of  mental  pleasures 
awaken  gradually  in  the  breast,  and  we  become  con 
scious  of  sentiments  and  powers  before  dormant  and  un 
known.  We  no  longer  gaze  around  with  that  gross, 
material  sense  to  which  nought  but  material  objects  can 
be  present  and  visible.  A  keener  mental  sight  opens 
within.  To  the  eye  of  sense,  the  whole  earth  may  be 
cold  and  blank ;  while  to  the  eye  of  cultivated  imagina 
tion,  every  part  of  creation  beams  with  rays  of  light,  and 
glory,  and  beauty. 

In  such  moments — for  alas  !  they  are  only  moments 
— the  world  loses  its  hold,  base  cares  and  bad  passions 
flit  away,  and  the  mind,  though  riot  redeemed  from  the 
thraldom  of  vice  of  the  burden  of  sorrow,  is  for  a  time 
calmed  and  purified. 

Among  a  people  situated  like  this,  to  whom  compara 
tive  freedom  from  those  more  pressing  cares  of  life,  which 
weigh  heavily  and  incessantly  upon  the  most  numerous 
class  of  society  in  many  other  countries,  leaves  much 
leisure,  is  it  not  wise,  is  it  not  prudent,  is  it  not  consonant  to 
the  nature  of  man,  to  provide  for  him  some  occupations 
and  objects,  far  lower,  we  willingly  admit,  than  the  ex 
ercise  of  his  religious  and  social  duties  and  affections,  but 
as  far  above  the  vicious  gratification  of  grosser  appetites* — 
something,  that,  while  it  engages  and  employs  his  fa- 


ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.  151 

culties  in  innocence,  at  the  same  time  invigorates  his 
mind,  and  enlarges  his  conceptions? 

Whatever  utility  in  this  regard  may  be  justly  claimed 
for  elegant  literature,  or  speculative  science,  may,  on  the 
same  grounds,  be  ascribed  to  taste  and  knowledge  in  the 
fine  arts.  If;  however,  some  stern  and  severe  moralist 
should  yet  doubt  whether  society  derives  any  real  benefit 
from  either  source,  we  may  at  least  ask  him,  if  the  time 
thus  employed  is  not  well  redeemed  from  coarse  sensuali 
ty,  from  the  calumnies  and  slanders  of  malicious  indo 
lence,  from  ostentatious  luxury,  from  the  dull,  dull  round 
of  fashionable  amusement,  or  from  the  feverish  strife  of 
personal  ambition  ? 

It  is  true,  that  the  Arts  have  been  at  times  the  inmates 
of  corrupt  and  despotic  courts,  the  flatterers  of  tyranny,  the 
panders  of  vice.     But  the  alliance  is  not  necessary — it  is 
not  natural.     If  the  fertile  and  spirited  pencil  of  some  of 
the  ablest  masters  of  the  elder  French  school,  wasted  its 
powers  in  allegorical  adulations  of  a  despot  and  a  bigot — - 
if  the  higher  genius  of  Italy  could  sometimes  stoop  to  yet 
baser  prostitution,  let  us  remember  that  such  is  the  con 
dition  of  man.   Every  acquirement  may  be  abused,  all  ta 
lent  may  be  profaned.     Poetry,  Science,  History,  have 
each  in  their  turn  been  bent  to  serve  some  bad  use.     Boi- 
leau  is  the  most  abject  of  flatterers,  Dryden  panders  the 
profligacy  of  a  licentious  capital,  La  Place  is  the  advocate 
of  a  blind  and  mechanical  atheism,  Hume  lends  his 
matchless  acuteness  and  the  never-tiring  fascinations  of 
his  style,  to  cheerless  scepticism,  and  to  cold-blooded  de 
famation  of  the  champions  and  the  cause  of  liberty  and 
conscience ! 

What  then  ?  Is  ignorance  therefore  necessary  to  vir 
tue  or  to  freedom  ?  Is  the  cultivation  of  the  imagination, 
the  taste,  and  the  reason — of  all  those  faculties,  which 


152  ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

distinguish  man  from  his  fellow  animals,  unfriendly  to 
the  improvement  of  the  moral  powers  ?  Believe  it  not. 
Patriot,  Moralist,  Christian,  think  not  so  meanly  of  your 
sacred  cause — wrong  it  not  by  unworthy  suspicions.  It 
imposes  upon  you  no  useless  austerities ;  it  asks  no  aid 
from  ignorance  ;  it  loves  the  light. 

Confident,  then,  that  whatever  pursuit  or  amuse 
ment  teaches  man  to  feel  his  own  capacity  for  purer  and 
better  delights  than  those  of  sense,  must  in  some  degree 
or  other  improve  and  dignify  his  nature,  may  we  not  say 
with  Reynolds,  that  "every  establishment  which  tends  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  pleasures  of  the  mind,  as  distinct  from 
those  of  sense,  may  be  considered  as  an  inferior  school  of 
morality,  where  the  mind  is  polished  and  prepared  for 
higher  attainments?" 

Let  me  conclude  in  the  language  of  the  same  great  and 
philosophical  painter,  whose  imaginative  and  almost  Pla 
tonic  philosophy,  whose  acute  perceptions  of  the  princi 
ples  of  the  imitative  arts,  and  placid  dignity  of  eloquence, 
have  raised  him  to  a  rank  of  excellence  in  literature,  even 
superior  to  that  which  he  had  worthily  earned  in  his  pro 
fession;  and  whose  works  present  an  admirable  example 
of  the  beautiful  union  of  just  and  refined  taste,  with  mo 
ral  wisdom  and  elevated  sentiment. 

"The  labours  of  the  artist,"  says  he,  "may  extend 
themselves  imperceptibly  into  public  benefits,  and  be 
among  the  means  of  bestowing  on  whole  nations  refine 
ment  of  taste ;  which  if  it  does  not  lead  directly  to  purity  of 
manners,  obviates  at  least  their  greatest  depravation,  by 
disentangling  the  mind  from  appetite,  and  conducting 
the  thoughts  through  successive  stages  of  excellence,  till 
that  contemplation  of  universal  rectitude  and  harmony 
which  began  in  taste,  may,  as  it  is  exalted  and  refined, 
conclude  in  Yirtue."  He  adds,  in  words  of  weighty 


ADDRESS  ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.  153 

truth  and   solemnity,  which  I  would  impress  upon  the 
mind  of  every  member  of  this  institution: — 

"Every  artist  ought  well  to  remember,  that  he  deserves 
just  so  much  encouragement  in  the  state,  as  he  makes 
himself  a  member  of  it  virtuously  useful,  and  contributes  in 
his  sphere  to  the  general  purpose  and  perfection  of  socie- 
ty." 


N 


NOTES 


'    TO    THE    ADDRESS    ON    THE    FINE    ARTS. 


NOTE  1— Page  128. 

"  The  glory  of  this  work,  says  Tacitus,  speaking  of  the  Ro 
man  Capitol,  projected  under  the  Kings,  was  reserved  for 
liberty.  It  was  completed  and  dedicated  under  the  second 
consulate  of  Horatius  Puvilius,  with  a  magnificence  which 
the  immense  wealth  of  the  Roman  people  in  after  ages  adorned 
rather  than  increased." — Tacitus,  History  III. 

There  is  a  secret  charm  in  the  writings  of  Tacitus,  arising 
from  the  constant  struggles  of  an  ardent  and  indignant  spirit 
of  Roman  liberty,  as  constantly  repressed  by  that  stoical  dig 
nity  and  studious  impartiality,  which  he  conceived  to  belong 
to  the  historian.  He  sees,  not  without  very  deep  emotion,  the 
great  friends  of  liberty  fall  a  sacrifice,  one  after  another,  but 
his  stern  philosophy  suppresses  all  expression  of  sympathy 
for  them,  or  of  indignation  against  their  oppressors.  "  I  shall 
speak  of  men,"  says  he, "  without  affectation  and  without  hatred.'' 
"  Nee  amore  quisquam  nee  odio  dicendus  est."  But  when  he 
relates  the  destruction  off  the  capitol,  by  the  armies  of  Ves 
pasian  and  Vitellius,  he  throws  off  all  constraint,  and  gives 
vent  to  Roman  feelings,  in  language  such  as  Livy,  or  Lucan 
might  have  used. 


156  NOTES  TO  THE  ADDRESS 


NOTE  2 — Page  129. 

These  lines  are,  I  believe,  by  Campbell,  but  I  have  never  seen 
them  in  his  works,  and  know  them  only  through  quotations 
and  the  newspapers. 

NOTE  3— Page  140. 

This  is  the  language  of  our  distinguished  countryman, 
Washington  Allston,  a  poet  and  a  painter,  to  whom  I  have 
often  applied  the  eulogy,  which  some  mod-em  Latinist  has 
given  of  a  great  artist  of  his  own  times. — "  Arte  clarus,  literis 
ornatus,  moribus  pulchrior." 

NOTE  4— Page  141. 

The  series  of  historical  portraits  of  the  Governors  of  the  state 
of  New- York,  and  of  a  number  of  the  naval  my!  military  officers, 
who  distinguished  themselves  in  the  late  war,  together  with 
many  of  our  most  eminent  magistrates,  by  Trumbull,  Sully,  Jar- 
vis,  and  Waldo,  which  are  now  in  the  City-Hall  of  New- York, 
would  form  an  excellent  foundation  for  a  national  portrait  galle 
ry.  By  adding  to  it,  at  the  expense  of  a  few  hundred  dollars  every 
j^ear,  the  portraits  of  our  Presidents,  Chief  Justices,  Chancel 
lors,  and  distinguished  Judges  of  the  Federal  and  State  Courts, 
and  of  any  great  public  benefactors  in  science  or  art,  we  should 
have,  in  the  course  of  twenty  years,  an  inestimable  collection, 
to  which  every  succeeding  year  would  add  fresh  interest  and 
value.  This  would  afford  scope,  too,  for  the  exercise  of  the 
talents  of  many  excellent  artists,  who  are  now  necessa 
rily  obliged  to  restrict  themselves  to  mere  face-painting.  The 
historical  portrait  is  a  medium  between  portrait  and  history  ; 
and  where  naturally,  and  without  affectation,  it  can  be  com 
bined  with  action,  (as  has  been  happily  done  by  Jarvis,  in  his 
picture  of  Commodore  Perry,  in  the  boat  leaving  his  shattered 
ship,  to  hoist  his  flag  on  board  another,  in  the  memorable 
fight  on  Lake  Erie,)  it  gives  room  for  the  higher  powers  of 
the  art. 


ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.  157 

The  library  of  the  College  of  this  city,  contains  a  number 
of  good  portraits  of  the  most  eminent  presidents  and  profes 
sors  of  that  respectable  institution  since  its  foundation,  in  1753, 
and  this  little  collection  is  always  seen  with  much  interest. 
But  a  college  which  can  number  among  its  sons  such  men  as 
Alexander  Hamilton,  John  Jay,.  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Gouver- 
neur  Morris,  and  many  younger  men,  who  are  now  among 
the  foremost  of  our  citizens  in  politics,  at  the  bar,  or  in  the 
pulpit,  would  add  to  its  own  dignity  and  reputation,  by  ex 
tending  this  gallery  so  as  gradually  to  comprehend  all  those 
of  her  sons  of  whom  she  has  most  reason  to  be  proud. 

Harvard  University,  founded  in  1639,  and  Yale  College, 
founded  in  1701,  two  most  respectable  and  useful,  and  for  our 
country,  venerable  establishments,  have  already  the  ground 
work  of  galleries  of  the  same  kind,  and  if  these  were  to  be 
extended  on  this  plan,  they  would  soon  contain  the  portraits 
of  very  many  of  the  greatest  men  of  our  nation.  This  would 
not  be  mere  ostentation.  It  is  a  wise  thing  as  well  as  a  proud 
thing,  for  a  seminary  of  learning  to  show  itself  to  the  inge 
nuous  youth  under  its  charge,  as 


centum  complexa  nepotes 


Omnes  Coelicolas,  omnes  supera  alta  tenentes. 


NOTE  5— Page  141. 

Almost  all  the  statues  and  busts  of  our  great  men  which  we 
have  in  this  country,  are  by  foreign  artists,  some  of  them  of 
the  highest  reputation.  The  statue  of  Washington  for  the 
state  of  North  Carolina,  is,  as  is  well  known,  by  Canova,  and 
Chantrey  has  executed  another  for  Boston.  We  have  in 
this  and  other  cities  very  fine  busts  of  him  by  Cerrachi,  Thor- 
waldson  and  Trentanove ;  these  are  all  historical  likenesses. 
The  best  portrait  bust  is  probably  that  of  Houdon.  The 
common-casts  of  Hamilton,  and  George  Clinton,  are  from  Ce- 
rachi.  Franklin  employed  the  skill  of  all  the  eminent  French 
sculptors  of  his  day. 


158  NOTES  TO  THE  ADDRESS 

Since  the  first  publication  of  this  address  eight  years  ago, 
we  can  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  sudden  developement 
of  the  talent  of  several  native  sculptors.  Greenhough,  of 
Massachusetts,  who  has  enjoyed  and  improved  all  the  ad 
vantages  of  study  and  residence  in  Italy,  is  now  employed 
by  order  of  Congress,  upon  a  colossal  statue  of  Washington 
for  the  capitol.  Frazee,  of  New- York,  a  self-taught  and  un- 
travelled  artist,  has  discovered  powers  of  the  highest  order 
which  require  only  fit  subjects  and  occasion  for  their  exercise, 
to  do  lasting  honour  to  his  country. 

NOTE  9— Page  148. 

West,  Copely,  Trumbull,  G.  Stuart,  Malbone,  W.  Allston, 
Leslie,  Steuart  Newton,  Vanderlyn,  Harding,  Fairman,  Dan- 
forth,  Cole,  and  Greenhough,  are  among  the  American  artists, 
in  different  walks,  who  have  not  only  studied,  but  successfully 
pursued  their  profession  in  Europe. 

All  of  these,  I  believe,  without  exception,  whilst  (in  the 
words  of  Bryant)  their  hearts 

have  borne  to  Europe's  strand, 

A  living  image  of  their  native  land. 

Among  all  the  different  scenes  of  their  after  life  in  Europe, 
Still  kept  that  earlier,  wilder  image  bright. 

There  are  obvious  reasons  which  impede  the  American  ar 
tist,  who  aspires  to  display  his  talent  in  the  mere  poetry  of 
his  profession,  and  in  very  large  compositions.  We  may 
look  forward  to  a  steady  and  growing  demand  for  cabinet  pic 
tures,  and  such  works  as  may  be  fitted  for  the  scale  of  our 
houses  and  our  limited  fortunes.  But  our  public  and  national 
establishments  can  seldom,  with  any  propriety,  or,  indeed,  in 
any  keeping  with  their  general  character,  borrow  other  deco 
rations  from  the  Painter  and  Sculptor,  than  such  as  are  purely 
historical ;  including  in  that  term  not  only  portraits  and  sta 
tues  of  great  men,  but  also  those  strictly  historical  works,  the 


ON  THE  FINE  ARTS.  159 

subjects  of  which  are  drawn  from  our  own  annals.  These, 
though  unquestionably  affording  scope  for  great  excellence, 
both  in  conception  and  in  skill,  still  allow  little  room  for  the 
bolder  flights  of  the  imagination,  and  the  more  exquisite  re 
finements  of  taste.  The  sagacity  of  Mr.  West,  many  years 
ago,  pointed  out  to  his  American  friends,  the  practice  of  ex 
hibition  as  a  mode  of  patronage  peculiarly  fitted  for  this 
country,  and  it  is  a  subject  of  felicitation  to  the  friends  of  the 
arts,  that  it  is  daily  becoming  more  common  to  the  United 
States. 


THE    SCHOOLMASTER. 


[THE  following  Tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  very  useful 
and  good  man,  was  prepared  in  compliance  with  a  vote  of 
the  Trustees  of  the  Institution  of  which  he  was  Principal, 
and  was  delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  High 
School  Society,  November,  1829,  the  members  of  the  Ly 
ceum  of  Natural  History  also  attending,  as  a  society,  with 
many  other  citizens.  The  Annual  Report  of  the  state  of 
the  Schools  under  the  charge  of  the  Trustees,  having  first 
been  made  by  the  President  of  the  Board,  he  proceeded  as 
follows :] 


TRIBUTE 

TO    THE 

MEMORY  OF  DANIEL  H.  BARNES. 


Having  thus  briefly  discharged  the  ordinary  official  du 
ty  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  another  and  more  melancholy 
office  remains  to  be  performed. 

It  is  to  express  in  the  name  of  all  connected  with  the  gov 
ernment  of  this  Institution,  or  who  take  an  interest  in  its 
welfare,  our  individual  feelings  of  deep  regret  for  the  death 
of  the  late  Associate  Principal,  and  to  endeavour  to  pay  to 
his  memory  something  of  that  honour  which  his  talents 
and  virtues  merit,  and  his  zealous  and  faithful  services 
peculiarly  claim  at  our  hands. 

In  speaking  of  Daniel  H.  Barnes,  I  shall  not  use  either 
the  language  of  ostentatious  grief  or  of  studied  panegy 
ric.  Cut  off,  as  he  was,  suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  health, 
and  activity,  and  usefulness,  his  death  is  one  of  those  mys 
terious  and  dark  dispensations  of  that  Providence  "whose 
ways  are  not  is  man's  ways,"  which,  bringing  home  to 
the  most  careless,  the  sense  of  the  frail  tenure  of  life,  awes 
the  mind  into  stillness  and  solemnity,  But  severely  as 
the  blow  must  be  felt  by  the  dearer  friends  of  his  own 
family,  the  sorrow  of  others  for  the  death  of  a  virtuous  and 
pious  man,  whose  stainless  life  had  been  ardently  devoted 
to  the  service  of  his  Maker,  the  duties  of  his  station,  and 
the  best  interests  of  society,  has  in  it  little  of  bitterness.  It 
is  sad,  and  solemn,  and  calm,  and  durable. 


164  THE  SCHOOLMASTER. 

Nor  less  unsuited  to  the  occasion  would  be  the  language 
of  rhetorical  eulogy.  The  memory  of  a  man  who  had 
diligently  devoted  his  whole  life  and  talents  to  the  acqui 
sition  of  useful  knowledge  and  the  application  of  that 
knowledge  to  the  most  beneficial  purposes,  will  be  best 
honoured  by  a  simple  statement  of  his  life,  his  studies,  and 
his  character. 

Daniel  H.  Barnes  was  born  in  the  county  of  Columbia, 
in  the  State  of  New- York,  in  the  year  1785,  and  was  edu 
cated  at  Union  College  in  Schenectady.  He  early  devoted 
himself  to  the  instruction  of  youth,  and  soon  after  he  had 
completed  his  collegiate  course,  was  appointed  Master  of 
the  Grammar  School  attached  to  Union  College.  Here  he 
gained  not  only  ex  perience  but  reputation,  and  some  years 
after,  was  chosen  Principal  of  the  respectable  Academy 
at  Poughkeepsie,  one  of  the  incorporated  seminaries 
of  .education  under  the  patronage  and  visitation  of  the 
Regents  of  the  University  of  this  State.  That  institu 
tion  flourished  under  his  charge  for  several  years,  and  in  it 
many  individuals,  now  filling  honourable  stations  in  vari 
ous  walks  of  life,  received  the  most  valuable  part  of  their 
classical  and  scientific  education.  He  was,  however, 
tempted  to  leave  this  station  by  an  invitation  to  Cincin 
nati,  Ohio,  where  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  an  incor 
porated  academic  or  collegiate  establishment  for  the  higher 
branches  of  education.  At  Cincinnati  his  situation  was 
honourable,  and  his  services,  as  usual,  were  laborious  and 
successful.  The  enterprise,  the  activity,  the  rapid  growth 
and  improvement  so  conspicuous  in  that  country,  unparal 
leled  in  its  progress  in  population,  cultivation,  and  refine 
ment  were  congenial  to  the  unwearied  activity  and  be 
nevolent  ardour  of  his  own  mind.  The  yet  unexplored 
natural  riches  of  that  region  of  the  west,  added  besides 
fresh  excitements  to  his  liberal  and  indefatigable  curiosity. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER.  165 

But  he  found  the  climate  of  Ohio  unfriendly  to  nis  con 
stitution,  and  was  reluctantly  obliged  some  years  ago  to 
resign  his  duties  there,  and  return  to  his  native  air  on  the 
Atlantic  coast.  He  then  established  a  private  classical 
school  in  this  city,  where  he  soon  acquired  the  same  re 
putation  which  he  had  enjoyed  at  other  places  of  his  resi 
dence.  In  this  city,  his  mind  was  enlarged  and  excited 
by  new  objects  of  curiosity  and  instruction,  and  the  so 
ciety  of  men  eminent  in  various  ways  for  talent  or  acquire 
ment.  His  studies  took  a  wider  range.  He  became  an 
ardent  and  successful  student  of  Natural  History.  From 
the  languages  and  literature  of  antiquity  he  advanced 
on  to  the  higher  branches  of  Philology  and  the 
Philosophy  of  language.  He  improved  his  knowledge 
of  chemical  and  physical  science,  and  became  conversant 
with  their  application  to  the  useful  arts. 

During  this  period,  too,  his  early  and  deep-seated  re 
ligious  convictions  and  feelings,  which  had  long  ruled 
his  life,  led  him  to  the  more  regular  and  systematic  study 
of  theology,  and  he  became  an  ordained  minister  of  the 
Baptist  church. 

Sensible,  doubtless,  that  the  instruction  of  youth  was 
the  peculiar  talent  which  had  been  intrusted  to  him,  and 
believing  that  he  could  thus,  "according  to  his  ability," 
best  serve  his  Master,  he  never  became  the  regular  pastor 
of  any  church  or  congregation.  His  appearance  in  the 
pulpit  was,  therefore,  rare  and  occasional ;  but  I  am  told 
that  his  discourses  and  public  prayers  were  distinguished 
for  the  soundness  of  their  reasoning  and  the  earnest  fer 
vour  of  their  eloquence.  His  theological  opinions  were 
those  of  the  Calvinistic  Baptists.  That  he  believed  the 
doctrines  he  professed  firmly  and  conscientiously,  his  life 
is  a  proof.  That  sincerity  in  his  own  belief  was  united 

o 


166  THE  SCHOOLMASTER. 

in  him  with  charity  for  those  who  differed  from  it,  is  at 
tested  by  his  friendly  connexion  in  this  institution  with  an 
Associate  Principal  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  a  Board 
of  Trustees  of  various  other  denominations;  and  still 
more  by  the  earnestness  and  fidelity  with  which,  on  pro 
per  occasions,  he  here  enforced  the  great  principles  of  faith 
and  morals,  upon  a  large  body  of  pupils  educated  in  all 
the  different  modes  of  worship  known  amongst  us,  with 
out  ever  irritating  the  feelings  or  exciting  the  prejudices 
of  any  parent  or  pupil. 

The  respect  and  confidence  with  which  he  was  regard 
ed  by  that  numerous  and  respectable  body  of  Christians 
with  whom  he  was  immediately  connected  were  shown, 
first,  by  his  appointment  to  a  professorship  of  Hebrew  and 
G  reek  in  a  Theological  institution,  founded  some  years 
ago,  for  the  instruction  of  candidates  for  the  ministry  in 
the  Baptist  church,  and  more  recently,  by  his  unanimous 
election  to  the  office  of  President  of  the  Columbian  Col 
lege  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  a  seminary  of  general 
learning  under  the  peculiar,  though  not  exclusive  patron 
age  and  government  of  the  same  communion.  This 
last  appointment,  after  some  suspense,  he  relinquished  in 
favour  of  this  institution,  to  which  he  had  been  devoted 
from  its  foundation. 

Our  deceased  friend's  natural  ardour  of  mind,  directed 
as  it  always  was  by  the  sense  of  duty  and  the  sentiments 
of  philanthropy,  made  him  one  of  those  who  can  never  be 
come  the  slaves  of  routine  and  custom,  and  who  cannot 
be  content  with  what  is  merely  well,  as  long  as  it  seems 
practicable  to  make  it  better.  Alike  in  the  government  o 
his  own  heart  and  conscience,  in  the  pursuits  of  science, 
and  in  the  business  of  education,  his  constant  aspiration 
was  to  improvement. 


THE    SCHOOLMASTER.  167 

It  was,  therefore,  that  his  attention  was  early  directed 
to  the  monitorial  system  of  Bell  and  Lancaster,  and  its 
extension  from  simple  elementary  instruction  to  the 
mathematics,  ancient  and  modern  languages,  and  such 
branches  of  science  as  do  not  require  the  aid  of  lectures  or 
experiment.  He  had  satisfied  himself  of  the  value  of  this 
system  by  trial  on  a  small  scale  in  his  own  private  classes, 
when  his  confidence  in  its  efficacy  was  increased  by  its 
successful  application  in  the  High  School  of  Edinburgh  by 
Prof.  Pillans,  as  well  as  by  the  attestations  of  Drs.  Mant 
and  D'Oyley  to  its  use  in  the  Charter- House  School  of 
London. 

He,  therefore,  eagerly  co-operated  in  the  foundation  of 
the  High  school  for  Boys,  in  1824,  became  one  of  the  two 
Associate  Principals,  and  was,  until  his  death,  the  faithful 
and  efficient  head  of  the  classical  department. 

The  several  preceding  annual  Reports  of  the  School 
committees,  drawn  up  by  some  of  our  most  distin 
guished  citizens,  show  the  high  sense  of  the  value  of 
his  services  entertained  by  the  successive  Boards  of  Trus 
tees  ;  while  the  great  number  of  pupils  (always  averaging 
from  500  to  700)  gave  still  stronger  evidence  of  his  repu 
tation  with  the  public. 

His  School  was  often  thronged  with  visitors  and  teach 
ers  from  abroad,  anxious  to  learn  and  diffuse  its  methods 
of  instruction,  and  one  of  the  best  proofs  of  its  merit,  is  the 
fact,  that  it  was  the  model  of  numerous  and  most  valua 
ble  similar  establishments  in  various  parts  of  the  Union. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  career  of  useful  and  honoura 
ble  service  that  he  was  snatched  from  us. 

He  had  been  invited  last  month  by  the  Trustees  and 
Officers  of  the  "Rensselaer  School,"  recently  founded  near 
Troy  by  the  well-judged  munificence  of  one  of  our  most 


168  THE    SCHOOLMASTER. 

honoured,  and  patriotic  citizens,  to  attend  their  annual  ex 
amination.  He  had  taken  great  interest  in  this  school  from 
its  foundation,  as  it  had  been  in  part  modelled  on  the  plan 
of  his  own  system  of  instruction,  and  because  it  combines 
with  the  usual  elementary  course,  the  rudiments  of  natu 
ral  and  physical  science,  and  the  practice  of  agriculture. 

"I  must  go,"  said  he, in  words  of  fatal  import.  On  his 
way  thither,  he  was  thrown  from  a  stage-coach,  and  ex 
pired  a  few  hours  afterwards. 

He  died  regretted  and  honoured  by  all  who  knew  his 
public  services,  aud  deeply  mourned  by  those  friends  who 
more  intimately  knew  and  loved  his  private  virtues. 

In  this  simple  narrative  of  Mr.  Barnes'  life,  much  of  his 
character  has  been  anticipated.  It  is  due,  however,  to 
his  memory  to  say  something  more  of  his  character  as 
a  scholar  and  a  man  of  science,  and  his  merit  as  an  in 
structor. 

He  was  an  excellent  classical  scholar,  accurately  skilled 
in  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  to  which  he  added 
considerable  acquirements  in  the  Hebrew,  and  a  familiar 
acquaintance  with  modern  languages  and  literature.  As 
a  philologist,  like  other  zealous  cultivators  of  that  branch 
of  study,  he  was  perhaps  disposed  to  push  to  an  extreme 
his  favourite  theories  of  derivation  and  the  connexion  of 
languages ;  but  he  was  learned  and  acute.  His  acquire 
ments  in  mathematics  were  highly  respectable,  though  I 
think  that  he  never  devoted  himself  to  this  science  with 
the  same  zeal  as  to  other  collateral  studies. 

It  is  probably  as  a  Naturalist,  that  his  name  will  be 
best  known  to  posterity,  as  it  already  is  in  Europe.  He 
was  a  most  industrious  member  of  the  Lyceum  of  Natu 
ral  History  in  this  city,  a  society  which  without  parade  or 


THE    SCHOOLMASTER.  169 

public  patronage,  displaying  in  a  rare  degree  the  love  of 
learning  the  without  parade  of  it,  has  for  many  years  culti 
vated  the  Natural  sciences  with  admirable  zeal,  industry, 
and  success.  They  have  joined  us  in  paying  the  last  hon 
ours  to  the  memory  of  our  deceased  associate  and  it  is  to 
one  of  their  members,*  himself  a  Naturalist  of  well-earned 
reputation,  that  I  am  indebted  for  the  following  brief,  but 
judicious  and  honourable  statement  of  Mr.  Barnes'  labours 
and  attainments  as  a  Naturalist. 

"About  the  year  1819,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the 
Natural  Sciences,  and  his  connexion  with  the  Lyceum  of 
this  city  nearly  at  the  same  time,  gave  additional  impulse 
to  the  characteristic  zeal  with  which  he  prosecuted  his 
new  studies.  The  department  of  Mineralogy  and  Geolo 
gy  occupied  his  attention,  and  the  first  fruits  of  his  inqui 
ries  are  to  be  found  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Lyceum, 
entitled  a  "  Geological  survey  of  the  Canaan  mountains, 
with  observations  on  the  soil  and  productions  of  the  neigh 
bouring  regions."  t  In  this  paper  he  shewed  himself  well 
conversant  with  Botany  and  Zoology.  To  this  latter 
branch  of  Natural  History  he  subsequently  devoted  his 
leisure  hours  with  greater  avidity;  and  communicated  to 
the  Lyceum  a  curious  and  original  paper,  "  On  the  Gene 
ra  Unio  et  Alasmodonta,"  I  a  family  of  fresh  water  shells 
distinguished  for  their  beauty,  and  their  almost  infinite 
variety  of  form.  Shortly  after  appeared  in  the  annals  of 
the  Lyceum  several  other  papers  from  Mr.  Barnes  on  simi 
lar  subjects.  Two  of  these  may  be  particularly  noted,  one 
on  "the  Genus  Cluton,"  and  the  other  on  "the  doubtful 
reptiles." 

*  Dr.  Dekay. 

f  Subsequently  published  in  the  5th  vol.  of  Silliman's  Journal 
JSee  Silliman's  Journal  for  1823. 


170  THE  SCHOOLMASTER. 

The  reputation  of  Mr.  Barnes  as  a  Naturalist  will  be 
immoveably  established  upon  his  memoir  on  the  shells 
of  his  country.  The  introductory  observations  applicable 
to  the  whole  study  of  Conchology  are  marked  by  that 
precision,  clearness,  and  lucid  order  for  which  he  was 
remarkable.  He  described  above  twenty  new  species, 
and  a  short  time  before  his  death  he  received  a  flattering 
proof  of  the-  estimation  in  which  his  labours  were  held  by 
the  learned  of  Europe. 

The  great  and  splendid  work  of  Humboldt  on  Mexico, 
of  which  the  Zoological  part  is  now  in  the  course  of 
publication,  contains  beautiful  plates  and  descriptions  of 
the  genera  just  referred  to.  The  first  Zoological  critic  of 
Europe  (the  Baron  de  Ferussac)  in  commenting  upon 
this  work,  points  out  many  errors  into  which  the  author 
has  fallen ;  "  errors,"  he  observes,  "  which  had  arisen 
from  his  not  having  consulted  the  works  of  American 
naturalists,  and  especially  the  labours  of  Mr.  Barnes." 

As  a  naturalist,  Mr.  Barnes  had  very  peculiar  qualifica 
tions.  Familiar  with  the  learned  and  several  modern 
languages,  he  was  enabled  to  pursue  his  investigations 
beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  his  own.  His  inquiries 
were  conducted  with  a  caution,  a  patience,  and  a  modest 
diffidence,  which  cannot  be  too  much  imitated.  He  was 
scrupulously  exact  in  his  descriptions,  and  exhibited  a 
laudable  hesitation  at  generalizing  from  obscure  or  doubt 
ful  premises.  Engaged  in  laborious  avocations,  occupy 
ing  the  greatest  part  of  his  time,  it  was  only  in  hastily 
snatched  intervals  of  leisure,  that  he  could  devote  him 
self  to  those  pursuits  which  form  the  serious  business  of 
life  with  those  who  have  gained  distinction  in  them. 
The  reputation,  however,  of  a  scientific  man  does  not 
depend  upon  the  quantity  of  his  writings,  and  if  it  should 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER.  171 

be  said  that  Barnes  has  written  little  when  compared 
with  the  labours  of  the  professed  naturalist,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  that  little  has  been  done  singularly 
well* 

In  addition  to  this  just  and  discriminating  praise,  I 
have  only  to  add  that  he  never  regarded  these  acquisi- 
sitions,  or  indeed  any  others  not  immediately  entering 
into  the  uses  of  life,  as  of  ultimate  value  in  themselves. 
He  cherished  and  cultivated  the  study  of  Nature  as  fur 
nishing  truer  conceptions  of  the  Creator's  wisdom,  as 
giving  employment  to  the  understanding  and  habits  of 
accurate  and  attentive  observation,  and  as  frequently  and 
often  unexpectedly  leading  to  results  increasing  the  pow 
er  or  the  happiness  of  man. 

With  these  views  of  the  objects  of  the  science,  whilst 
in  his  more  elaborate  printed  essays  he  addressed  the 
scientific  naturalist,  he  was  wont,  in  occasional  popular 
lectures  to  his  pupils,  to  unfold  to  them  the  infinite  beauty, 
the  diversified  simplicity  of  the  order  of  nature.  To 
borrow  the  eloquent  language  of  an  accomplished  scho- 
lart  of  our  own  country,  who  amidst  the  laborious  occu 
pations  of  a  busy  life,  found  leisure  to  become  one  of  the 
first  naturalists  of  the  age ;  he  taught  them  how,  by  the 
light  of  science,  "  the  very  earth  on  which  we  tread  be 
comes  animate — every  rock,  every  plant,  every  insect 
presents  to  our  view  an  organization  so  wonderful,  so 

*  The  opinion  of  Mr.  Barnes's  merit  as  a  naturalist  expressed  as 
above  shortly  after  his  death  by  friends  and  countrymen,  has  since 
that  time  been  confirmed  by  the  general  suffrage  of  the  naturalists 
of  Europe.  Within  the  last  four  or  five  years  his  memoirs  have  been 
repeatedly  cited  by  some  of  the  first  zoologists  and  geologists  of  the 
age,  as  of  the  highest  authority  on  the  subjects  upon  which  they  treat. 

t  The  late  Stephen  Elliot,  Address  to  the  Lit.  and  Phil.  Soc.  of  S.  C. 


172  THE  SCHOOLMASTER. 

varied,  so  complex;  an  adaption  of  means  to  ends  so 
simple,  so  diversified,  so  extensive,  so  perfect,  that  the 
wisdom  of  man  shrinks  abashed  at  the  comparison.  Nor 
is  it  to  present  existence  that  our  observations  are  con 
fined.  The  mind  may  thus  be  enabled  to  retrace  the 
march  of  ages  ;  to  examine  of  the  earth  the  revolutions 
that  have  formed  and  deranged  its  structure — of  its  in 
habitants,  the  creation,  the  dissolution — the  continual 
reproduction — to  admire  that  harmony  which,  while  it 
has  taught  each  being  instinctively  to  pursue  the  primary 
object  of  its  creation,  has  rendered  them  all  subservient 
to  secondary  purposes."  With  the  same  eloquent  natu 
ralist  he  could  truly  add,  "  The  study  of  Natural  Histo 
ry  has  been  for  many  years  the  occupation  of  my  leisure 
moments :  it  has  lightened  for  me  many  a  heavy,  and 
smoothed  many  a  rugged  hour :  beguiled  by  its  charms, 
I  have  found  no  road  rough  or  difficult,  no  journey  te 
dious,  no  country  desolate  or  barren.  In  solitude  never 
solitary,  in  a  desert  never  without  employment,  I  have 
found  it  a  relief  from  the  languor  of  idleness,  the  pressure 
of  business,  and  the  unavoidable  calamities  of  life." 

In  his  own  profession,  as  a  teacher  of  youth,  Mr. 
Barnes  had  long  enjoyed  a  merited  reputation.  Able  and 
willing  to  teach,  and  to  teach  well  all  those  branches  of 
knowledge  which  the  wants  or  opinions  of  society  re 
quire,  as  essential  for  pursuits  of  active  life,  he  did  not 
consider  the  mere  drilling  of  his  pupils  in  those  studies  as 
a  sufficient  discharge  of  his  duty.  He  felt  a  warm  and 
parental  interest  in  them,  and  delighted  to  throw  before 
them  such  collateral  information  as.  might  stimulate  their 
curiosity,  or,  without  the  labour  of  formal  study,  enrich 
their  minds  with  such  hints  and  outlines  of  science  as 
might  in  after  life  be  filled  up  and  completed. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER. 


173 


Nor  were  the  peculiar  obligations  of  the  minister  of  a 
holy  religion,  forgotten  by  him  in  those  of  the  teacher  of 
human  learning.  He  omitted  none  of  those  opportuni 
ties  which  the  course  of  discipline  and  instruction  con 
stantly  presented,  to  impress  on  those  under  his  care 
notions  of  sound  morals,  to  correct  those  of  false  honour 
and  pride,  to  awaken  rational  piety,  or  to  quicken  those 
moral  sensibilities,  which,  though  they  may  be  dormant  in 
youth,  are  rarely  dead. 

It  has  been  to  me  a  source  of  pleasure,  though  a  me 
lancholy  one,  that  in  rendering  this  public  tribute  to  the 
worth  of  our  departed  friend,  the  respectable  members  of 
two  bodies,  one  of  them  the  most  devoted  and  efficient  in 
its  scientific  inquiries,  the  other  comprising  so  many 
names  eminent  for  philanthropy  and  learning,  have  met 
to  do  honour  to  the  memory  of  a  SCHOOLMASTER. 

There  are  prouder  themes  for  the  eulogist  than  this. 
The  praise  of  the  statesman,  the  warrior,  or  the  orator, 
furnish  more  splendid  topics  for  ambitious  eloquence;  but 
no  theme  can  be  more  rich  in  dessert,  or  more  fruitful  in 
public  advantage. ' 

The  enlightened  liberality  of  many  of  our  state  govern 
ments  (amongst  which  we  may  claim  a  proud  distinction 
for  our  own)  by  extending  the  common-school  system 
over  their  whole  population,  has  brought  elementary  edu 
cation  to  the  door  of  every  family.  In  this  State,  it  ap 
pears  from  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
State,  there  are  besides  the  fifty  incorporated  academies 
and  numerous  private  schools,  about  nine  thousand 
school  districts,  in  each  of  which  instruction  is  regularly 
given.  These  contain  at  present  half  a  million  of  children 
taught  in  the  single  State  of  New- York.  To  these  may 


174  THE  SCHOOLMASTER. 

be  added  nine  or  ten  thousand  more  youth  in  the  higher 
seminaries  of  learning,  exclusive  of  the  colleges. 

Of  what  incalculable  influence,  then,  for  good  or  for 
evil,  upon  the  dearest  interests  of  society,  must  be  the  es 
timate  entertained  for  the  character  of  this  great  body  of 
teachers,  and  the  consequent  respectability  of  the  indivi 
duals  who  compose  it  ! 

At  the  recent  general  election  in  this  State,  the  votes  of 
above  three  hundred  thousand  persons  were  taken.  In 
thirty  years  the  great  majority  of  these  will  have  passed 
away;  their  rights  will  be  exercised,  and  their  duties 
assumed  by  those  very  children,  whose  minds  are  now 
open  to  receive  their  earliest  and  most  durable  impres 
sions  from  the  ten  thousand  schoolmasters  of  this  State. 

What  else  is  there  in  the  whole  of  our  social  system  of 
such  extensive  and  powerful  operation  on  the  national 
character  ?  There  is  one  other  influence  more  powerful, 
and  but  one.  It  is  that  of  the  MOTHER.  The  forms  of 
a  free  government,  the  provisions  of  wise  legislation,  the 
schemes  of  the  statesman,  the  sacrifices  of  the  patriot,  are 
as  nothing  compared  with  these.  If  the  future  citizens 
of  our  republic  are  to  be  worthy  of  their  rich  inheritance, 
they  must  be  made  so  principally  through  the  virtue  and 
intelligence  of  their  Mothers.  It  is  in  the  school  of  ma 
ternal  tenderness  that  the  kind  affections  must  be  first 
roused  and  made  habitual — the  early  sentiment  of  piety 
awakened  and  rightly  directed — the  sense  of  duty  and 
moral  responsibility  unfolded  and  enlightened.  But  next 
in  rank  and  in  efficacy  to  that  pure  and  holy  source  of 
moral  influence  is  that  of  the  Schoolmaster.  It  is  pow 
erful  already.  What  would  it  be  if  in  every  one  of  those 
school  districts  which  we  now  count  by  annually  increas 
ing  thousands,  there  were  to  be  found  one  teacher  well- 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER.  175 

informed  without  pedantry,  religious  without  bigotry  or 
fanaticism,  proud  and  fond  of  his  profession,  and  honoured 
in  the  discharge  of  its  duties?  How  wide  would  be  the 
intellectual,  the  moral  influence  of  such  a  body  of  men  ? 
Many  such  we  have  already  amongst  us — men  humbly 
wise  and  obscurely  useful,  whom  poverty  cannot  depress, 
nor  neglect  degrade.  But  to  raise  up  a  body  of  such 
men,  as  numerous  as  the  wants  and  the  dignity  of  the 
country  demand,  their  labours  must  be  fitly  remunerated 
and  themselves  and  their  calling  cherished  and  honoured. 
The  schoolmaster's  occupation  is  laborious  and  un 
grateful  ;  its  rewards  are  scanty  and  precarious.  He 
may  indeed  be,  and  he  ought  to  be,  animated  by  the  con 
sciousness  of  doing  good,  that  best  of  all  consolations, 
that  noblest  of  all  motives.  But  that  too  must  be  often 
clouded  by  doubt  and  uncertainty.  Obscure  and  inglo 
rious  as  his  daily  occupation  may  appear  to  learned  pride 
or  worldly  ambition,  yet  to  be  truly  successful  and  happy, 
he  must  be  animated  by  the  spirit  of  the  same  great  prin 
ciples  which  inspired  the  most  illustrious  benefactors  of 
mankind.  If  he  bring  to  his  task  high  talent  and  rich 
acquirement,  he  must  be  content  to  look  into  distant  years 
for  the  proof  that  his  labours  have  not  been  wasted — that 
the  good  seed  which  he  daily  scatters  abroad  does  not 
fall  on  stony  ground  and  wither  away,  or  among  thorns, 
to  be  choked  by  the  cares,  the  delusions  or  the  vices  of 
the  world.  He  must  solace  his  toils  with  the  same  pro 
phetic  faith  that  enabled  the  greatest  of  modern  philoso 
phers,*  amidst  the  neglect  or  contempt  of  his  own  times 
to  regard  himself  as  sowing  the  seeds  of  truth  for  pos 
terity  and  the  care  of  Heaven.  He  must  arm  himself 

-  K:  '*'»  "•'   2*»WB  |5tf£t$W  bttHl  frl.}m   &fJB,t^l&J»Oi  *I?O 

w 

*  Bacon,  "  Serere  posteris  ac  Deo  immortali." 


176  THE  SCHOOLMASTER. 

against  disappointment  and  mortification,  with  a  portion 
of  that  same  noble  confidence  which  soothed  the  greatest 
of  modern  poets  when  weighed  down  by  care  and  dan 
ger,  by  poverty,  old  age,  and  blindness,  still 

In  prophetic  dream  he  saw 


The  youth  unborn,  with  pious  awe, 
Imbibe  each  virtue  from  his  sacred  page. 

He  must  know  and  he  must  love  to  teach  his 
not  the  meagre  elements  of  knowledge,  but  the  secret  and 
the  use  of  their  own  intellectual  strength,  exciting  and 
enabling  them  hereafter  to  raise  for  themselves  the  veil 
which  covers  the  majestic  form  of  Truth.  He  must 
feel  deeply  the  reverence  due  to  the  youthful  mind  fraught 
with  mighty  though  undeveloped  energies  and  affections 
and  mysterious  and  eternal  destinies.  Thence  he  must 
have  learnt  to  reverence  himself  and  his  profession,  and  to 
look  upon  its  otherwise  ill-requited  toils  as  their  own  ex 
ceeding  great  reward. 

If  such  are  the  difficulties,  and  the  discouragements — 
such,  the  duties,  the  motives,  and  the  consolations  of 
teachers  who  are  worthy  of  that  name  and  trust,  how 
imperious  then  the  obligation  upon  every  every  enlight 
ened  citizen  who  knows  and  feels  the  value  of  such  men 
to  aid  them,  to  cheer  them,  and  to  honour  them! 

But  let  us  not  be  content  with  barren  honour  to  buried 
merit.  Let  us  prove  our  gratitude  to  the  dead  by  faith 
fully  endeavouring  to  elevate  the  station,  to  enlarge  the 
usefulness,  and  to  raise  the  character  of  the  Schoolmaster 
amongst  us.  Thus  shall  we  best  testify  our  gratitude 
to  the  teachers  and  guides  of  our  own  youth,  thus  best  serve 
our  country,  and  thus  most  effectually  diffuse  over  our 
land  light,  and  truth,  and  virtue. 


AN 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 

PHILOLEXIAN    AND    PEITHOLOGIAN   SOCIETIES, 

OF 

COLUMBIA  COLLEGE. 


Quid  ni  ego  magnorum  virorum  elf  imagines  habeam  incit amenta  virtutis  et  na- 
tales  celebrem  ?    Quid  ni  illos  honoris  causa  appellem  ?  SENECA  EPIST. 

Peace  to  the  just  man's  memory, — let  it  grow 
Greener  with  years,  and  blossom  through  the  flight 
Of  ages ;  let  the  mimic  canvass  show 
His  calm  benevolent  features ;  let  the  light 
Stream  on  his  deeds  of  love,  that  shunned  the  sight 
Of  all  but  Heaven,  and  in  the  book  of  Fame 
The  glorious  record  of  his  virtues  write, 
And  hold  it  up  to  men,  and  bid  them  claim, 
A  palm  like  his  and  catch  from  him  the  hallowed  flame.        BRYANT, 


COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS. 


The  historian  Polybius  had  examined  the  institutions 
of  the  Roman  republic,  her  laws,  her  customs,  her  mili 
tary  discipline,  and  her  public  policy,  with  the  jealous 
curiosity  of  a  conquered  Greek,  and  the  enlightened 
sagacity  of  a  statesman  and  a  philosopher.  Himself  a 
distinguished  actor  in  most  of  the  important  transactions 
of  Rome's  history  during  his  eventful  times — in  turns 
the  opponent  in  arms  or  in  negociation,  and  the  chosen 
friend  of  her  greatest  men,  he  had  familiarly  studied  the 
very  elemsnts  of  Roman  character,  and  was  enabled  to 
trace  in  it  the  springs  and  causes  of  the  nation's  great 
ness. 

In  a  remarkable  passage  of  his  history  he  has  pointed 
out  one  ancient  usage  of  the  commonwealth  as,  in  his 
opinion,  eminently  efficacious  in  forming  the  character 
of  her  youth,  inflaming  them  with  magnanimous  desires 
and  generous  sentiments,  and  fitting  them  for  the  toils, 
the  duties,  and  the  glories  of  freemen.  This  powerful 
agent  he  found  in  the  public  honours  reverently  and  con 
stantly  paid  to  their  illustrious  dead. 

It  was  not  merely  that  the  funeral  rites  of  every  citizen 
who  had  deserved  well  of  his  country  were  solemnly  at 
tended  by  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  who,  with  in 
tense  and  respectful  interest,  listened  in  silence  to  the 


180  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS. 

praises  of  his  virtues  and  public  services,  pronounced  in 
the  Forum  by  the  most  eloquent  of  his  kinsmen  or 
friends  ;  but  it  was  moreover  that  on  such,  as  well  as  on 
other  fitting  occasions,  the  venerable  images  of  a  long 
line  of  yet  older  patriots  and  heroes,  who  in  former  years 
had  illustrated  the  family  of  the  deceased,  were  again 
brought  before  the  public  view,  decorated  with  the  robes 
and  surrounded  with  the  trophies  of  their  well-won  ho 
nours,  while  their  great  deeds  were  recited  and  their 
virtues  extolled,  and  thus  their  memory  kept  fresh  and 
living  from  generation  to  generation. 

"  By  these  means, "says  the  historian,  "  the  praise  and 
the  fame  of  excellent  men  and  their  deeds  are  continually 
renewed  ;  the  names  and  the  exploits  of  those  who  have 
deserved  well  of  their  country  are  made  familiar  to  the 
people,  and  handed  down  to  posterity;  and  what  is  by 
far  the  chief  of  all,  the  young  are  perpetually  excited  to 
the  hope  of  imitating  these  illustrious  fathers  of  the  state, 
and  of  earning  that  honourable  name  and  grateful  re 
membrance  which  the  good  alone  can  obtain." 

The  effect  of  such  a  usage  could  not  be  otherwise  ; 
for  it  was  founded  in  the  deepest  knowledge  of  human 
nature. 

The  rules  of  prudence,  the  obligations  of  moral  duty, 
the  lessons  of  high  philosophy,  the  exhortations  of  ardent 
patriotism,  are  all,  in  themselves,  but  cold  generalizations, 
which  may  command  the  assent  of  the  reason  and  be 
treasured  away  in  the  memory,  without  warming  the 
heart  or  giving  any  direction  to  the  conduct.  Embody 
these  in  example,  enable  the  imagination  to  give  to  them 
voice  and  form,  and  they  at  once  become  living  and  im 
pressive  teachers  of  the  noblest  truth.  Combine  with 
this  strong  influence  that  of  another  great  law  of  human 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  181 

nature,  the  principle  of  association;  let  these  examples 
be  drawn  from  the  lives  of  those  who  have  laboured  or 
suffered  for  our  own  good,  whose  mother-tongue  was  our 
own,  who  once  breathed  the  air  and  trod  the  soil  of  our 
own  dear  native  land,  the  fruit  of  whose  labours  we  are 
now  enjoying,  the  scenes  of  whose  exertions  are  still  be 
fore  our  eyes, — how  eloquent  then  do  such  examples  be 
come  !  When  they  have  been  made  familiar  to  the 
mind,  when  they  are  combined  with  our  earliest  recollec 
tions,  how  little  can  be  added  to  their  force  by  fancy  or 
rhetoric  !  A  simply  stated  fact,  a  date,  a  mere  name,  is 
then  sufficient  to  excite  the  flush  of  patriotic  sympathy, 
or  the  thrill  of  generous  enthusiasm. 

For  these,  the  most  exalted  uses  of  History  and  Biogra 
phy,  of  literature  and  eloquence,  America  has  already 
rich  and  abundant  materials.  Here  the  ordinary  history 
of  centuries  has  been  crowded  into  the  space  of  a  single 
life.  Here  the  humble  colony  of  one  generation  has,  in 
another,  risen  into  a  powerful  state,  and  expands  to  a  great 
empire  in  a  third.  This  rapid  course  of  events  could  not 
pass  along  without  developing  the  energies  of  minds 
worthy  of  the  times,  and  equal  to  their  greatest  occasions. 
Their  scene  of  action  was  vast  and  magnificent ;  they 
were  animated  and  sustained  by  stronger  as  well  as  purer 
motives  than  heathen  philosophy  ever  knew;  whilst 
science  had  armed  their  minds  with  powers,  to  which  the 
knowledge  of  the  chiefs  and  rulers  of  past  ages  was  as 
that  of  children,  It  is  one  of  the  best  and  most  exalted 
duties  of  the  men  of  the  present  day.  to  make  the  charac 
ters  and  lives  of  these  fathers  of  our  country  known  and 
familiar  to  the  youth  of  our  land,  and  to  accustom  them 
to  draw  the  lessons  of  wisdom,  and  the  examples  of  virtue, 
from  our  own  annals:  "Heroum  laudes  et facia  par  en- 


182  CODUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS. 


legere"  and  from  them  to  learn  "  qua  sit  cognos 
ces  virtus" 

It  is  from  these  considerations,  and  with  the  hope  of 
discharging  some  part  of  this  duty,  that  I  have  been  in 
duced  to  select  the  subject  of  the  present  discourse.  It 
seemed  to  me,  that  in  addressing  the  literary  societies 
formed  under  the  protection  of  our  ancient  college 
amongst  her  students  and  graduates,  for  their  mutual  im 
provement  in  the  best  uses  of  good  learning,  —  meeting 
them,  too,  upon  the  eve  of  that  literary  anniversary  when 
our  Alma  Mater  is  again  to  send  forth  a  fresh  body  of 
her  sons,  from  the  discipline  of  education,  to  the  cares 
and  struggles  of  active  life,  —  no  theme  could  be  more 
appropriate  than  the  praise  of  some  of  those  illustrious 
dead,  whose  memory  our  country  cherishes  with  grate 
ful  affection,  and  whom  our  college  proudly  numbers 
among  her  elder  and  favourite  sons. 

It  has  been  the  merit  or  the  happy  fortune  of  this  in 
stitution,  to  have  educated  no  inconsiderable^  number  of 
America's  greatest  men.  Here  many  of  the  most  vigo 
rous  and  original  minds  of  the  nation  have  received  their 
first  intellectual  discipline  and  impulse.  This  is  no  idle 
boast,  no  fond  exaggeration.  From  her  origin,  eminent 
for  sound  and  accurate  instruction  in  classical  learning 
and  mathematical  science;  placed  in  the  midst  of  a  city, 
where  the  restless  and  unceasing  activity  of  enterprize 
and  industry  keeps  the  mind  always  awake,  and  presents 
to  the  most  careless  looker-on  every  aspect  of  human 
character  and  variety  of  human  pursuit,  this  college  has 
long  given  her  pupils  most  of  the  advantages  that  can 
stimulate  application  or  awaken  genius  ;  and  the  fame 
of  many  of  her  sons  has  amply  repaid  the  cares  of  their 
Alma  Mater.  Amongst  these  she  can  claim  some  of  the 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  183 

fathers  of  our  civil  liberties,  the  founders  of  our  national 
institutions,  the  teachers  of  our  civil  wisdom.  On  the 
same  roll  are  inscribed  the  names  of  public  benefactors, 
who  by  the  improvement  or  wider  application  of  science, 
have  enlarged  the  power  and  augmented  the  happiness  of 
man,  and  scattered  plenty  over  the  land.  There,  too, 
are  the  names  of  those  who  "  have  turned  many  unto 
righteousness,"  by  devoting  the  best  gifts  of  learning, 
taste,  genius,  and  eloquence,  to  the  study  and  inculcation 
of  gospel  truth  and  moral  law. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  attempt  giving  a  minute  ac 
count  of  the  lives  oivvirtues  of  any  of  them.  That  is 
the  proper  business  of  the  historian  and  the  biographer. 
My  chosen  task  is  a  briefer  one,  but  it  is  not  less  pleasing 
or  honourable.  It  is,  to  present  in  rapid  review  before 
you  the  names  and  characters  of  some  few  of  the  most 
distinguished  of  those  who  have  thus  illustrated  our  aca 
demic  family,  and,  from  this  literary  rostrum,  amidst  the 
scenes  of  their  youthful  studies  and  earliest  distinctions, 
surrounded  in  imagination  by  their  venerable  forms  and 
the  trophied  honours  of  their  maturer  lives,  to  speak  to 
you  briefly  of  their  virtues  and  talents.  I  cannot  indeed 
speak  of  them  with  the  eloquence  of  antiquity,  but  I 
trust  to  do  it  in  its  true  spirit;  turning  aside  from  the 
recollection  of  the  errors  or  frailty  which  haply  may  have 
sometimes  alloyed  their  excellence,  expelling  from  my 
own  breast  every  narrow  or  bitter  feeling  excited  by  dif 
ference  of  opinion,  which  might  tempt  me  to  wrong  the 
fame  of  any  one  of  them,  and  striving  to  raise  myself 
and  my  hearers  to  a  congenial  admiration  of  moral  and 
intellectual  worth  and  high  deserts. 

At  the  commencement  of  our  revolution,  this  college 
had  been  in  successful  progress  for  about  twenty  years, 


184  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS. 

under  learned  and  able  instructors,  with  all  the  collateral 
aids  of  science  which  the  times  afforded.  The  weight 
of  station,  authority,  and  perhaps  of  talent,  in  this  city, 
was  with  the  mother  country.  Dr.  Cooper,  the  President 
of  this  college,  was  a  wit  and  a  scholar,  whose  learning 
and  accomplishments  gave  him  personal  popularity  and 
respect  with  his  pupils,  and  of  course  added  authority  to 
his  opinions — and  those  were  the  opinions  and  prejudices 
of  the  high-toned  English  University  tory  of  the  last 
century.  To  these  halls  then  we  should  scarcely  have 
looked  for  any  of  the  earliest  champions  of  American 
rights.  Yet  why  not?  In  them  classic  lore  had  un 
folded  to  the  student  the  grand  and  exciting  sentiments 
of  ancient  liberty ;  here  the  discipline  of  mathematical 
reasoning — a  discipline,  if  possible,  still  more  valuable 
than  the  conclusions  which  that  reasoning  establishes — 
had  trained  him  to  think  and  to  judge  for  himself:  and 
here  he  had  been  directed  by  the  great  masters  of  Eng 
lish  philosophy,  by  Bacon  and  Locke,  to  venerate,  to  feel, 
and  to  assert  the  rights  of  private  judgment  and  con 
science.  Yes — learning  may  be,  and  too  often  has  been, 
the  slavish  handmaid  of  power,  hoodwinked  by  early 
prejudice,  lured  by  interest,  or  dazzled  by  ambition.  But 
these  are  not  the  true  and  natural  results, — they  never 
can  be, — of  any  study  which  otherwise  enlarges  the  un 
derstanding  and  elevates  the  soul.  Those  who  so  be 
lieve,  do  but  vilify  Heaven's  best  gifts  to  the  human  race. 
Well  hath  it  been  said  of  such  reasoners,  by  a  philoso 
phical  and  republican  poet — 

"  Oh,  fool !  to  think  the  man  whose  ample  mind 
Must  grasp  at  all  that  yonder  stars  survey ; 

Must  join  the  noblest  forms  of  every  kind, 
The  world's  most  perfect  image  to  display, 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  185 

Can  e'er  his  country's  majesty  behold, 
Unmoved  or  cold ! 
Oh,  fool !  to  deem 

That  he  whose  thought  must  visit  every  theme 
******* 
That  he,  if  haply  some  presumptuous  foe, 

With  false,  ignoble  science  fraught, 
Shall  spurn  at  freedom's  faithful  band  ; 
That  he  their  dear  defence  will  shun, 
Or  hide  their  glories  from  the  sun, 
Or  deal  their  vengeance  with  a  woman's  hand." 

AKENSIDE. 

The  annals  of  our  college  bear  testimony  to  the  same 
elevating  truth.  Her  Alumni  were  among  the  foremost 
champions  of  American  Liberty  in  the  cabinet  and  the 
field.  There  were  early  found  Jay,  and  Livingston,  and 
Morris,  and  Benson  ;  Van  Cortlandt,  and  Rutgers,  and 
Troup,  and  Hamilton. 

At  the  beginning  of  that  glorious  struggle,  Alexander 
Hamilton  was  still  a  youth,  engaged  in  pursuing  his 
college  studies  with  that  ardour  and  application  which 
characterized  all  his  mental  efforts  throughout  life.  The 
momentous  questions  of  the  rights  of  the  colonies,  and 
the  powers  of  the  parent  state,  had  been  discussed  in 
New- York  with  no  ordinary  talent  on  both  sides.  The 
mind  of  the  future  statesman  was  roused  by  the  subject. 
Like  the  Swedish  warrior,  who,  when  he  heard  for  the 
first  time  the  whistling  of  bullets  about  him,  exclaimed, 
u  This  henceforth  shall  be  my  music,"  young  Hamilton, 
with  a  nobler  instinct,  when  he  then  first  turned  his 
mind  to  the  investigation  of  great  principles,  the  duties 
of  subjects,  their  rights,  and  those  of  their  rulers  and  of 
the  state,  felt  the  true  vocation  of  his  genius,  and  rushed 
impatiently  forward  to  enter  upon  his  destined  career  of 
a  patriot  statesman.  Then  it  was  that  his  talents  were 


186  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS. 

first  employed  in  the  public  service ;  and  (in  the  words 
of  his  eloquent  funeral  eulogist*)  "  America  saw  with 
astonishment  a  lad  of  seventeen  in  the  ranks  of  her  ad 
vocates,  at  a  time  when  her  advocates  were  sages  and 
patriots."     A  few  months  more  found  the  same  youth 
the  companion  in  arms  and  the  confidential  friend  of 
Washington.     Who  amongst  us  does  not  know  the  other 
events  of  his  life  ?     I  can  touch  only  upon  that  part  of 
it  which  is  identified  with  the  history  of  our  constitution. 
It  was  to  his  foresight,  his  influence  and  eloquence, 
more  than  to  any  other  man,  perhaps  more  than  to  all 
others,  that  we  owe  that  union  of  the  states  under  the 
present  constitution,  which  rescued  us  from  weakness 
and  anarchy,  and  gave  us  a  permanent  rank  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.     It  is  well  known  that  in  the  con 
vention  which  framed  it,  opinions  as  to  the  character  of 
the  proposed  instrument  were  held,  so  widely  variant 
from  each  other,  and  so  warmly,  as  to  threaten  the  disso 
lution  of  the  assembly  without  coming  to  any  useful 
result.     Hamilton's  own  theoretical  plan  of  a  constitution 
was  undoubtedly  not  in  unison  with  the  principles  and 
feelings  of  a  majority  of  the  people  ;  for  he  thought  that 
the  state  of  society  at  home,  and  of  public  affairs  abroad, 
required  a  frame  of  government  as  secure  from  the  fluc 
tuations  of  popular  opinion  as  could  be  made  consistent 
with  its  foundation  in  the  public  will.     This  was  a  the 
ory,  in  my  view,  deduced  from  an  imperfect  estimate  of 
the  American  character,  and  of  the  tendency  and  effect 
of  representative  institutions,  which  our  ampler  experience 
has,  I  trust,  contradicted  and  refuted.     But  he  hesitated 
not  to  sacrifice  his  pride  of  opinion  to  the  practical  good 

*  Dr.  Mason. 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  187 

of  the  country.  Amidst  the  discordant  elements  of  par 
ties,  and  the  collisions  which  proceeded  from  them,  his 
great  talents  were  devoted  with  steadfast  singleness  of 
purpose  to  the  object  of  national  union.  To  this  he 
sacrificed  every  secondary  consideration.  He  sought 
union  in  the  spirit  of  union,  and  finally  attained  it,  not 
by  the  victory  of  a  party,  but,  as  the  convention  solemnly 
declared,  "as  the  result  of  a  spirit  of  amity  and  mutual 
deference  and  concession."* 

As  this  spirit  gave  birth  to  our  federative  government, 
so  surely  will  it  long  continue  to  animate  and  sustain  it. 
Whoever  commends  this  spirit  of  mutual  submission  and 
concession  merely  as  a  salutary  remedy  against  whatever 
ills  may  threaten  our  national  union,  in  my  mind,  sees  its 
operation  but  darkly  and  imperfectly.  It  is  far  more 
than  this.  It  is  the  vital  and  animating  soul  of  our  form 
of  government,  throughout  all  its  stages.  It  is  bound  up 
in  all  its  provisions.  It  is  taught  in  all  our  political  insti 
tutions  and  usages,  general,  and  state,  and  local.  It  is 
the  earliest  and  most  frequently  repeated  lesson  of  every 
citizen;  it  is  inculcated  upon  him  in  every  exercise  of 
his  elective  rights.  A  wisdom  higher  than  human  fore 
sight  has  thus  made  that  which  is  the  essential  support  of 
our  civil  polity,  the  natural  result  of  all  its  operations.  By 
this  the  Union  was  formed,  and  by  it  the  Union  will  be 
preserved. 

The  effective  defence  of  this  constitution,  its  luminous 
exposition,  and  its  victorious  adoption  after  a  doubtful  and 
embittered  contest,  give  to  Hamilton  other  and  equally 
enduring  claims  upon  the  gratitude  of  posterity.  In  his 
speeches  in  the  convention  of  this  state,  and  in  the  more 

*  Address  of  the  Convention  to  the  People  of  the  U.  S. 


188  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS* 

expanded  vindication  and  exposition  of  the  constitution 
contained  in  his  numbers  of  the  Federalist,  whilst  the  im 
mediate  object  of  clearing  up  doubts,  satisfying  scruples, 
and  refuting  objections  was  victoriously  obtained,  he  has 
left  to  succeeding  generations  a  treasure  of  political  science, 
that  must  ever  be  resorted  to  as  the  most  authoritative  and 
masterly  exposition  of  our  constitutional  charter,  and  the 
most  luminous  commentary  upon  the  nature  and  history 
of  representative  and  federative  government. 

Then  succeeded  his  short  but  brilliant  administration 
of  our  finances,  rendered  memorable  by  that  efficient  or 
ganization  of  the  public  revenue  and  resources  which  re 
plenished  the  bankrupt  treasury,  raised  the  prostrate  na 
tional  credit,  and  placed  it  on  a  firm  and  durable  basis, 
gave  immediate  activity  to  commerce  and  the  arts,  and 
security  to  all  their  pursuits.  It  was  memorable  too  for 
a  series  of  official  reports  from  his  pen,  which  have  proved 
the  inexhaustible  source  of  instruction,  of  argument,  of  au 
thority  to  our  statesmen,  political  economists,  jurists,  and 
orators,  under  every  administration  and  all  forms  of  par 
ties.  Of  the  doctrines  sustained  in  these  reports,  many 
belong  to  the  still  debatable  and  debated  questions  of  eco 
nomical  and  constitutional  discussion  upon  which  great 
parties  and  great  minds  have  heretofore  divided,  and  still 
differ.  How  is  it  then,  that  Hamilton's  writings,  like  his 
fame,  have  ceased  to  be  the  property  of  a  party,  and  have 
become  that  of  the  nation? 

It  was  not  merely  that  he  brought  to  the  consideration 
of  vast  and  complicated  questions  a  mind  original,  inven 
tive,  logical;  that  those  native  powers  were  supported  by 
an  untiring  industry  and  abundant  knowledge,  which 
drew  elucidation  and  argument  from  every  collateral 
source.  But  it  was,  that  this  vigour  of  mind  and  ampli- 


COLUMBIA   COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  189 

tude  of  knowledge  were  but  the  instruments  of  a  frank,  and 
simple,  and  manly  integrity  of  purpose,  unstained  by  any 
selfish  motive,  always  seeking  for  truth  as  its  object,  al 
ways  looking  to  the  public  good  as  its  ultimate  end.  It 
was  this  that  stamped  its  peculiar  character  upon  his  elo 
quence,  whether  spoken  or  written.  Filled  with  the 
strong  interest  of  his  subject,  he  had  no  thought  of  him 
self.  There  were  no  flights  of  ambitious  rhetoric,  no  gau 
dy  ornament,  no  digressions  of  useless  learning  or  osten 
tatious  philosophy;  every  thing  he  said  had  relation  to  his 
subject  alone,  and  that  was  viewed  in  every  light,  tried 
by  every  test,  examined,  scrutinized,  canvassed,  discuss 
ed;  no  objection  suppressed,  no  difficulty  avoided;  till 
at  last,  whatever  might  be  his  own  conclusion,  nothing 
was  wanting  to  enable  the  hearer  or  reader  to  judge  for 
himself.  His  stream  of  thought,  as  it  proceeded,  was 
swelled  from  a  thousand  fountains,  yet  it  still  flowed  on 
in  one  full,  clear,  and  mighty  current. 

It  was  this  same  characteristic  of  moral  and  intellectual 
frankness,  that,  during  his  life,  made  him.  without  office 
or  patronage,  the  acknowledged  head  of  a  talented  and 
powerful  party;  that,  amidst  that  violence  of  contention 
which  alienated  friends  and  brothers,  gained  for  the  lead 
er  and  champion  of  a  minority  the  confidence  of  the 
whole  nation  in  his  purity  and  patriotic  intentions.  This 
won  for  Hamilton  the  high  tribute  of  his  illustrious  rival, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  not  only  to  his  "colossal  talents,"  but 
to  his  private  virtues,  and  the  good  faith  and  undissembled 
honour  of  his  public  conduct.  When  he  died,  it  was  this 
recollection  above  all  others  that  filled  the  land  with 
^loom  and  sorrow. 

Many  years  have  passed  away — I  was  then  very 
young — but  I  still  remember  as  if  it  were  yesterday,  the 

Q. 


190  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS, 

manner  in  which  the  news  of  his  fall  flew  throughout  this 
city — the  earnest  inquiries  which  were  heard — the  ex 
pression  of  anxious  and  painful  interest  seen  in  every 
countenance.  On  the  green  before  the  house  near  this 
city  where  he  lay  expiring,  I  saw  collected,  in  silent 
groups,  all  that  society  most  esteemed  for  ability  or  worth. 
There,  and  every  where,  past  differences,  personal  or  po 
litical  opposition,  were  sunk  at  once  and  for  ever,  in  grief 
and  honour  for  the  honest  statesman  and  the  eloquent 
patriot. 

The  name  of  John  Jay  is  gloriously  associated  with 
that  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  in  the  history  of  our  liberties 
and  our  laws.  John  Jay  had  completed  his  academic 
education  in  this  college,  several  years  before  the  com 
mencement  of  the  revolution.  The  beginning  of  the 
contest  between  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies  found  him 
already  established  in  legal  reputation,  and,  young  as  he 
still  was,  singularly  well  fitted  for  his  country's  most  ar 
duous  services,  by  a  rare  union  of  the  dignity  and  gravity 
of  mature  age  with  youthful  energy  and  zeal.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-jeight,  he  drafted,  and  in  effect  himself  formed, 
the  first  constitution  of  the  state  of  New- York,  under 
which  we  lived  for  forty-five  years,  which  still  forms  the  ba 
sis  of  our  present  state  government,  and  from  which  other 
states  have  since  borrowed  many  of  its  most  remarkable 
and  original  provisions.  At  that  age,  as  soon  as  New- 
York  threw  off  her  colonial  character,  he  was  appointed  the 
first  Chief  Justice  of  the  state.  Then  followed  a  long,  rapid, 
and  splendid  succession  of  high  trusts  and  weighty  duties, 
the  results  of  which  are  recorded  in  the  most  interesting 
pages  of  our  national  annals.  It  was  the  moral  courage 
of  Jay,  at  the  head  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  his  own  state, 
that  gave  confidence  and  union  to  the  people  of  New- 
York.  It  was  from  his  richly  stored  mind  that  proceeded, 


COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  191 

while  representing  this  state  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  (over  whose  deliberations  he  for  a  time  presided) 
many  of  those  celebrated  state  papers,  whose  grave  elo 
quence  commanded  the  admiration  of  Europe,  and  drew 
forth  the  eulogy  of  the  masters  orators  and  statesmen  of 
the  times — of  Chatham  and  Burke — whilst,  by  the  evi 
dence  which  they  gave  to  the  wisdom  and  talent  that 
guided  the  councils  of  America,  they  contributed  to  her 
reputation  and  ultimate  triumph  as  much  as  the  most 
signal  victories  of  her  arms.  As  our  minister  at  Madrid 
and  Paris,  his  sagacity  penetrated,  and  his  calm  firmness 
defeated,  the  intricate  wiles  of  the  diplomatists  and  cabi 
nets  of  Europe,  until,  in  illustrious  association  with 
Franklin  and  John  Adams,  he  settled  and  signed  the  de 
finitive  treaty  of  peace,  recognizing  and  confirming  our 
national  independence.  On  his  return  home,  a  not  less 
illustrious  association  awaited  him  in  a  not  less  illustrious 
cause — the  establishment  and  defence  of  the  present  na 
tional  constitution,  with  Hamilton  and  Madison.  The 
last  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs  under  the  old  confede 
ration,  he  was  selected  by  Washington  as  the  first  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  under  the  new  constitution. 

I  need  not  speak  of  the  talent  with  which  he  dis 
charged  the  duties  of  this  latter  station.  His  early  edu 
cation  and  regular  industry  had  made  him  a  learned 
technical  lawyer  ;  and  after  a  long  suspension  of  these 
studies,  he  returned  to  the  law  with  a  mind  invigorated 
by  constant  and  laborious  employment,  enlarged  by  a 
variety  of  knowledge  and  observation,  and  habituated  to 
the  investigation  and  exposition  of  the  first  principles  of 
right,  of  liberty,  and  of  government. 

His  able  negociation  and  commercial  treaty  with 
Great  Britain,  and  his  six  years'  administration  as  Go 
vernor  of  this  state  completed  his  public  life. 


192  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS. 

As  the  character  of  Hamilton  presents,  in  its  soldier 
like  frankness  and  daring,  a  beautiful  example  of  the 
spirit  of  chivalry  applied  to  the  pursuits  of  the  statesman, 
so  in  that  of  Jay,  pure  and  holy  justice  seemed  to  be  em 
bodied.  He  lived  as  one — 

Sent  forth  of  the  Omnipotent,  to  run 
The  great  career  of  justice. 

He  was  endowed  above  most  men  with  steadiness  of 
purpose  and  self-command.  He  had  early  sought  out 
for  himself,  and  firmly  established  in  his  mind,  the  grand 
truths,  religious,  moral,  or  political,  which  were  to  regu 
late  his  conduct;  and  they  were  all  embodied  in  his  daily 
life.  Hence  the  admirable  consistency  of  his  character, 
which  was  the  more  striking  as  it  seemed  to  reconcile 
and  unite  apparently  opposite  qualities.  That  grave 
prudence,  which,  in  common  men,  would  have  swayed 
every  action  to  the  side  of  timid  caution,  was  in  him 
combined  with  invincible  energy.  So  too  in  his  opin 
ions.  No  man  was  more  deeply  penetrated  with  the 
doctrines  or  the  sentiment  of  religion  ;  no  man  more 
conscientiously  exact  in  its  observances  ;  whilst  no  man 
could  look  with  more  jealousy  on  any  intermixture  of  the 
religious  with  the  temporal  authority;  no  man  more 
dreaded,  or  watched  with  more  vigilant  caution,  every 
invasion,  however  slight,  upon  the  rights  of  private  con 
science. 

After  a  long  and  uninterrupted  series  of  the  highest 
civil  employments,  in  the  most  difficult  times,  he  sudden 
ly  retired  from  their  toils  and  dignities,  in  the  full  vigour 
of  mind  and  body,  at  a  time  when  the  highest  honours 
of  the  nation  still  courted  his  acceptance,  and  at  an  age 
•when,  in  most  statesmen,  the  objects  of  ambition  show 


COLUMBIA   COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  193 

as  gorgeously,  and  its  aspirations  are  as  stirring  as  ever. 
He  looked  upon  himself  as  having  fully  discharged  his 
debt  of  service  to  his  country ;  and  satisfied  with  the 
ample  share  of  public  honour  which  he  had  received,  he 
retired  with  cheerful  content,  without  ever  once  casting 
a  reluctant  eye  towards  the  power  or  dignities  he  had 
left.  For  the  last  thirty  years  of  his  remaining  life,  he 
was  known  to  us  only  by  the  occasional  appearance  of 
his  name,  or  the  employment  of  his  pen,  in  the  service 
of  piety  or  philanthropy.  A  halo  of  veneration  seemed 
to  encircle  him,  as  one  belonging  to  another  world, 
though  yet  lingering  amongst  us.  When,  during  the 
last  year,  the  tidings  of  his  death  came  to  us,  they  were 
received  through  the  nation,  not  with  sorrow  or  mourn 
ing,  but  with  solemn  awe;  like  that  with  which  we 
read  the  mysterious  passage  of  ancient  scripture — "And 
Enoch  walked  with  God,  and  he  was  not,  for  God  took 
him." 

Among  the  immortal  names  of  our  revolution  and 
earlier  political  history,  our  college  may  claim  yet  a  third 
son,  worthy  to  be  ranked  with  those  of  whom  I  have 
spoken. 

Eloquent  and  learned,  graced  with  taste  and  fancy, 
the  accomplishments  of  elegant  letters  and  arts,  and  the 
acquisitions  of  solid  science,  Robert  R.  Livingston  was 
the  fellow-labourer  of  Jay  and  Hamilton  in  achieving 
the  liberties  of  the  United  States,  and  in  rearing  the  fa 
bric  of  our  civil  institutions,  as  well  as  their  ablest  rival 
and  opponent  in  the  subsequent  division  of  parties.  He 
filled  for  twenty-five  years  the  first  law  office  of  this 
state ;  and  during  that  period  of  the  revolution  when 
the  best  talent  of  the  nation  was  employed  in  its  diplo 
matic  service,  acted  as  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs  to 


194  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS. 

Congress,  with  an  ability  and  talent  at  that  time  duly 
estimated,  but  which  had  fallen  into  oblivion,  and  become 
unknown  to  most  of  the  present  generation,  until  then- 
effects  were  again  conspicuously  brought  to  light  by  the 
very  recently  published  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the 
American  revolution.  These  alone  are  signal  claims  to 
distinction ;  but  in  him  they  are  lost  in  the  blaze  of  far 
brighter  and  more  lasting  honours.  His  first  act  as  an 
American  statesman,  was  as  one  of  the  committee  of 
five,  (Jefferson,  Franklin,  John  Adams,  Roger  Sherman, 
and  Robert  R.  Livingston,)  who,  in  the  Congress  of 
1776,  prepared  and  presented  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  His  last  political  transaction  was  the  nego 
tiating  and  concluding  that  treaty  which  added  to  our 
empire,  Louisiana,  with  the  command  of  the  Mississippi 
and  that  vast  territory  whence  one  mighty  state  after  an 
other  is  now  successively  bursting  into  life.  Thus  the 
name  of  Livingston  is  deeply  inscribed  upon  the  very 
corner-stone  of  our  national  liberties,  and  on  the  broadest 
arch  of  our  national  power. 

But  the  most  important  part  of  a  country's  history  is 
not  always  that  which  is  written  in  its  political  annals. 
The  advance  of  knowledge,  commerce,  agriculture,  arts, 
whilst  they  seem  but  to  follow  in  the  train  of  good  go 
vernment,  often  operate  in  silence  changes  as  gigantic  in 
their  influence  on  human  happiness,  as  those  revolutions 
that  shake  the  world  and  give  birth  to  nations.  Such 
changes  have  we  witnessed  within  our  own  lives,  and 
in  our  own  country. 

Splendid  as  were  the  incidents  of  Chancellor  Living 
ston's  official  and  political  career,  he  himself  wisely  looked 
with  more  satisfaction,  and  his  best  fame  may  hereafter 
rest,  upon  his  efficient  agency  as  an  enlightened  private 


COLUMBIA   COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  195 

citizen  in  hastening  forward  the  march  of  improvement 
over  our  land.  He  was  among  the  first  in  this  state  who 
applied  to  agriculture  the  science  and  the  interest  of  a 
liberal  study,  braving  the  laugh  of  the  ignorant,  and  the 
sneers  of  the  prejudiced,  at  the  failure  of  his  experiments, 
and  richly  rewarded  in  their  success  by  the  general  good 
he  had  earned.  The  arts  of  taste  and  design  found  in 
him  one  of  their  earliest  and  most  judicious  patrons. 
Under  his  auspices  the  first  academy  in  this  country  for 
their  cultivation  was  formed,  and  under  his  immediate 
direction  it  was  provided  with  the  best  means  of  im 
provement  for  the  artist,  and  of  instruction  and  refine 
ment  to  the  general  taste.  Above  all,  his  agency  in  the 
invention  of  steam-navigation,  his  enlightened  science  in 
early  perceiving  its  practicability  and  admirable  use,  his 
prophetic  confidence  in  ultimate  success  amidst  repeated 
disappointments,  losses,  and  ridicule,  and  finally  his  sa 
gacity  in  seizing  upon  and  associating  with  himself  the 
practical  genius  of  Fulton,  whose  plans  had  been  rejected 
with  scorn  by  the  rulers,  the  savans,  and  the  capitalists 
of  the  old  world,  combine  to  place  him  in  the  highest 
ranks  of  the  lasting  benefactors  of  the  human  race.  It 
is  a  beautiful  thought  of  Lord  Bacon's,  that,  antiquity, 
whilst  it  honoured  the  law-givers,  the  founders  or  deliver 
ers  of  states,  but  with  the  title  of  worthies  or  demigods, 
rightly  bestowed  upon  those  who  had  invented  or  im 
proved  the  arts  and  commodities  of  human  life,  "honours 
(as  he  terms  them)  heroical  and  divine ;"  because  the 
merit  of  the  former  is  confined  within  the  circle  of  one 
age  or  nation,  but  that  of  the  others  is  indeed  like  the 
benefits  of  heaven,  being  permanent  and  universal. 
"  The  former,"  says  he,  "is  mixed  with  strife  and  per 
turbation;  but  the  latter,  like  the  true  presence  of  Deity, 
comes  without  noise  or  agitation." 


196  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS. 

It  was  therefore  a  proud  eulogy,  as  well  as  a  true  one, 
which  a  distinguished  professor  (whose  own  name  adds 
scientific  lustre  to  the  catalogue  of  her  sons)  lately  pro 
nounced  upon  this  college,  when  he  traced  to  her  walls 
and  lecture-rooms,  the  germs  of  the  greatest  practical 
improvements  bestowed  by  science  upon  our  state  and 
nation, — the  steam  navigation  of  Livingston  and  Ste 
vens,  (for  the  name  of  Stevens  belongs  also  to  us)  and 
the  canal  system  of  Morris  and  Clinton. 

The  memory  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  the  first  graduate 
of  our  Alma  Mater  after  the  peace  of  1783,  is  another 
brilliant  and  treasured  possession  of  this  college.  After 
the  numerous  tributes  which  have  so  recently  been  paid 
to  his  memory,  and  especially  that  luminous  view  of  his 
character  as  a  scholar  and  a  statesman,  as  the  promoter 
of  good  education  and  useful  improvement,  contained  in 
the  discourse  lately  delivered  from  this  place,  by  Profes 
sor  Renwick,  any  thing  I  could  now  say  on  the  same 
subject  would  be  but  useless  repetition.  Else  would  I 
gladly  pay  the  homage  due  to  his  eminent  and  lasting 
services,  and  honour  that  lofty  ambition  which  taught 
him  to  look  to  designs  of  grand  utility,  and  to  their  suc 
cessful  execution,  as  his  arts  of  gaining  or  redeeming 
the  confidence  of  a  generous  and  public-spirited  people. 
For  whatever  of  party  animosity  might  have  ever 
blinded  me  to  his  merits,  had  died  away  long  before  his 
death ;  and  I  could  now  utter  his  honest  praises  without 
the  imputation  of  hollow  pretence  from  others,  or  the 
mortifying  consciousness  in  my  own  breast,  of  rendering 
unwilling  and  tardy  justice  to  noble  designs  and  great 
public  service. 

I  have  already  exhausted  much  of  the  time  and  at 
tention  I  have  a  right  to  claim  of  you  ;  and  there  still 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  197 

remain  many  names  worthy  of  much  honour,  whom  I 
had  intended  to  commemorate.  Some  of  these  I  must 
reluctantly  pass  over  in  silence,  and  of  others  I  can  do 
no  more  than  awaken  your  respect  or  affection  by  a  brief 
and  hurried  mention. 

Yet  the  lives  of  some  of  them  afford  the  richest  mate 
rials  for  biography,  and  are  indissolubly  associated  with 
the  most  interesting  events  of  our  history.  There  was 
Richard  Harrison,  alike  in  years  and  in  parental  care 
the  father  of  our  college,  for  half  a  century  the  most 
learned  and  accomplished  lawyer  of  a  learned  bar,  who 
during  a  long  and  busy  life  continued  to  pursue  with 
unbated  interest  and  application,  the  study  of  the  best 
literature  of  antiquity  and  modern  languages,  and  who 
found  in  those  studies  which  in  early  youth  had  ripened 
his  taste,  and  which  graced  the  severer  and  profound 
legal  science  of  his  maturer  years,  the  still  animating 
occupation  and  amusement  of  an  honourable  and  honour 
ed  old  age. 

There  was  the  eloquent  and  highly  gifted  Gouverneur 
Morris,  fitted  for  the  stirring  times  of  revolution  by  the 
buoyant  energy  of  his  character,  and  formed  to  grace 
alike  the  scenes  of  business  and  of  pleasure  by  the  ready 
versatility  of  his  talent,  the  brilliancy  of  his  wit  and 
imagination,  and  the  wide  range  of  his  knowledge  and 
accomplishments.  The  marks  of  his  genius  are  to  be 
seen  every  where ;  for  he  was  the  companion  of  Hamil 
ton  and  Jay  in  their  labours  for  the  independence  of  this 
nation,  and  the  establishment  of  this  government ;  and 
he  was  the  associate  of  Clinton  in  joining  the  ocean  with 
the  lakes. 

Nor  can  I  pass  over  in  utter  silence  the  amiable  Tomp- 
Idns,  the  rival  and  opponent  of  Clinton ;  for  there  is  one 


198  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS. 

remarkable  incident  in  his  life,  peculiarly  proper  to  be  re 
membered  here,  in  this  seminary  of  learning  and  upon 
a  solemn  literary  anniversary.     It  is  not  that  in  the  short 
space  of  twenty-five  years,  he  passed  in  quick  and  un 
broken  succession  through  every  high  trust  which  the 
people  of  this  state  could  bestow  upon  him.     It  is  not 
that  in  all  of  them  he  showed  himself  equal  to  their  im 
portant  duties ;  that  throughout  all  of  them,  his  gentle 
bearing,  his  many  amiable  and  generous  qualities,  won 
for  him  the  people's  love  ;  that  in  the  dark  hour  of  na 
tional  peril,  when  the  power  of  the  Union  was  shattered, 
and  its  resources  bankrupt,  he  put  that  popularity  to  the 
noblest  use,  by  rallying  the  people  of  this  state  as  one 
man  to  the  common  defence,  until,  in  the  oblivion  of 
former  political  contentions.  New- York  rose  with  a  giant's 
strength  and  raised  its  united  voice, — that  voice  to  the 
whole  land, 


-The  liveliest  pledge 


Of  hope,  in  fear  or  danger ;  heard  so  oft 
In  worst  extremes,  and  on  the  perilous  edge 
Of  battle  where  it  raged. 

These  are  recollections  that  still  warm  the  hearts  of 
thousands.  There  is  another  which  more  peculiarly 
belongs  to  us.  It  belongs  to  us  as  the  Alumni  of  his 
and  our  Alma  Mater,  the  oldest  seminary  of  learning 
in  the  state  of  New- York,  as  the  friends  of  liberal  and 
universal  knowledge,  as  scholars,  as  patriots.  It  is  this. 
During  his  administration  of  the  government  of  this  state, 
and  under  his  recommendation  and  direction  our  com 
mon  school  system  was  formed  and  put  into  operation — 
a  system  admirable  for  the  happy  ingenuity  with  which 
state  patronage  and  superintendence  are  combined  with 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  199 

local  and  individual  support  and  supervision — full  of 
present  efficiency,  and  yet  capable  of  illimitable  expan 
sion  and  improvement  adapted  to  the  wants  of  an  in 
creasing  population,  and  their  progressive  demands  for 
better  instruction  and  higher  knowledge. 

Rough  and  imperfect  as  these  outlines  of  character 
have  necessarily  been,  they  have  yet  covered  so  much  of 
my  canvass  that  I  have  little  room  left  for  others,  whom, 
when  the  plan  of  this  discourse  first  occurred  to  me,  I 
meant  to  have  made  conspicuous  in  it.     To  our  states 
men  and  jurists,  the  benefactors  of  society  and  the  pro 
moters  of  the  arts,  I  wished  to  add  with  equal  respect  our 
departed  scholars  and  authors,  and  divines.     They  are 
many,  but  must  not  all  be  wholly  omitted.     We  can 
never  in  this  hall  forget  the  mild  wisdom  of  our  former 
President,  Bishop  Moore.*     His  placid  dignity  of  aspect 
is  still  before  me.     The  tremulous  melody  of  his  win 
ning  and  touching  eloquence  still  sounds  in  my  ears. 
And,  too,  if  I  can  place  no  worthier  differing  on  the  tomb 
of  Bowden.t  let  me  at  least  mention  his  name  with  a 
pupil's  grateful  remembrance,  as  a  scholar,  a  reasoner, 
and  a  gentleman  ;  and  bear  witness  to  his  pure  taste, 
his  deep  and  accurate  erudition,  his  logical  acuteness, 
and  the  dignified  rectitude  of  his  principles  and  character. 
Thence  I  might  lead  you  along  among  the  tombs  of 
the  learned  and  the  good,  who,  in  their  days  of  youth 
and  hope,  filled  these  halls,  and  who  now  rest  in  peace  ; 
pausing  ever  and  anon,  to  mourn  over  some  one  of  those 

*  Rt.  Rev.  Benjamin  Moore,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  sjtate  of  New-York,  and  President  of  Columbia  Col 
lege. 

t  Dr.  John  Bowden,  for  many  years  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy 
and  Logic  in  Columbia  College. 


200  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS. 

whom  we  have  revered  or  loved,  until  we  stopped  to 
gether  at  the  still  fresh  grave  of  young  Bruen — 


-Dead  before  his  prime, 


Young  Lycidas  !  and  hath  not  left  his  peer. 

Within  a  few  days  a  bright  light  has  been  extin 
guished,  a  mighty  mind  has  departed.  If  scholarship, 
at  once  extensive  and  profound,  if  the  rare  union  of  inti 
mate  acquaintance  with  books,  and  deep  learning  in  the 
spirits  and  ways  of  men,  if  eloquence  powerful,  impres 
sive,  peculiar,  original,  if  that  strength  of  mind  which 
masters  others  to  its  will,  and  sways  opinion,  if  devotion 
and  zeal  for  the  best  interests  of  mankind,  animating  and 
directing  that  learning,  sagacity,  and  eloquence, — if  such 
endowments  can  add  lustre  or  dignity  to  character,  that 
praise  is  Mason's.* 

Almost  from  the  hour  he  left  these  walls,  he  exercised 
a  wide  and  commanding  influence  over  the  minds  of 
others.  Posterity  will  doubtless  judge  of  his  talent  chiefly 
from  his  written  productions.  These  are  but  fragments 
of  his  mind  ;  the  vigorous  but  accidental  exertions  of  his 
strength.  Yet  the  future  reader  will  see  in  these,  the 
productions  of  original  genius  acting  upon  ample  stores 
of  learning.  The  author  is  there  seen  seizing  his  sub 
ject  with  the  Herculean  grasp  of  Johnson  or  Horsley, 
stripping  off  and  throwing  contemptuously  aside  the 
common  places  which  might  belong  to  it,  and  embodying 
his  own  weighty  sense  in  language  always  peculiarly  his 
own,  always  forcible,  always  perspicuous,  frequently  con 
densed  and  polished,  often  fervid,  glowing,  and  impas 
sioned. 

Still  his  writings  afford,  I  repeat,  an  inadequate  idea 

*  Rev.  John  M.  Mason,  D.  D. 


COLUMBIA   COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  201 

of  the  riches  of  his  intellect.  A  more  favourite  field  of 
exertion  than  that  of  mere  authorship,  (for  I  believe  that, 
like  many  men  of  the  fullest  and  the  readiest  minds,  he 
sat  down  reluctantly  to  the  toil  of  elaborate  composition,) 
was  in  the  business  of  education.  It  was  as  Provost  of 
this  college,  as  President  of  Dickinson  college,  and,  for  a 
much  longer  period,  and  with  yet  greater  zeal,  as  head  of 
the  theological  school  of  his  o\vn  church,  that  he  ap 
plied  those  principles  which  he  has  laid  down  with  ad 
mirable  force  and  precision,  in  that  masterly  report  to  the 
Trustees  of  Columbia  College,  which  forms  the  basis  of 
their  present  system  of  academic  instruction.  There  it 
was  that  he  laboured,  not  to  teach  the  mere  knowledge 
of  words,  or  the  mere  knowledge  of  things,  but  (I  use 
his  own  language)  ccto  teach  his  pupils  to  get  knowledge 
for  themselves,  by  eliciting  their  faculties,  and  forming 
them  to  the  habit  of  thinking"* 

But  by  far  the  highest  proofs  of  Dr.  Mason's  ability 
were  shown  in  their  proper  place,  his  own  pulpit ;  and 
there,  chief  of  all,  in  that  immense  and  continuous  sys 
tem  of  scriptural  exposition  and  commentary,  which  he 
was,  for  many  years,  accustomed  to  give,  according  to  the 
old  usage  of  the  Scotch  churches. 

Whilst  the  very  nature  of  these  unwritten  and  extem 
poraneous,  but  not  unprepared  expositions,  rejected  the 
forms  and  method  of  rhetorical  art,  they  were  the  more 
singularly  adapted  to  the  kind  and  variety  of  his  talents. 

There,  he  was  wont  to  pour  forth  the  overwhelming 
opulence  of  his  mind  in  irregular  but  magnificent  pro 
fusion,  laying  alike  under  contribution  to  his  object,  theo 
logical  learning,  classic  lore,  and  the  literature  of  the 

*  Report  to  Trustees  of  Columbia  College. 
R 


202  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS. 

day  ;  illustrating  the  conclusions  of  the  logician  by  acute 
observations  upon  life  and  manners ;  alternately  con 
vincing  the  reason,  and  searching  and  probing  the  deep 
recesses  of  the  conscience ;  now  drawing  moral  lessons 
from  the  history  of  the  long-buried  past,  and  now  com 
menting  upon  the  events  or  the  vices  of  the  day,  or  per 
haps  the  follies  of  the  hour ;  nour  lifting  aloft  the  blazing 
torch  of  Christian  philosophy  to  guide  the  honest  seeker 
after  truth,  and  now  showering  his  withering  scorn  upon 
the  scoffer's  head ;  explaining,  defending,  deducing,  en 
forcing  his  doctrines  or  precepts,  sometimes  with  colloquial 
familiarity,  and  then  again,  in  a  bold  and  swelling  elo 
quence,  that  stirred  and  wTarmed  the  heart  like  the  sound 
of  a  trumpet,  or  the  triumphant  shout  of  a  rejoicing 
multitude. 

It  was  in  his  noon-day  of  life,  his  prime  of  mind, 
when  the  little  asperities  of  character,  so  often  accom 
panying  the  consciousness  of  high  mental  power,  were 
softened  and  mellowed  away,  when  his  earlier  and  per 
haps  narrower  views  and  opinions  had  been  opened  and 
liberalized  by  large  experience  and  independent  thought, 
when  every  thing  promised  a  long,  and  glorious,  and 
useful  career,  that  the  numbing  hand  of  disease  was  laid 
upon  him,  and  the  infirmities  of  premature  age  arrested 
alike  his  professional  duties  and  his  plans  of  literary  en- 
terprize.  Such  are  the  hopes  of  man  !  Over  the  loss 
of  his  usefulness  to  her  churches,  her  studies,  and  the 
training  of  her  ministry,  Religion  has  mourned  long 
before  we  were  called  to  mourn  his  death.  Among  his 
literary  enterprizes  thus  interrupted,  was  his  long  medi 
tated  biography  of  Hamilton,  on  which  he  had  wished 
and  hoped  to  put  forth  the  whole  force  of  his  genius. 
He  had  studied  his  subject  deeply ;  he  was  intimately 


COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  203 

acquainted  with  the  character  of  his  hero  and  his  friend  • 
and  he  would  have  poured  forth  his  soul  in  his  eulogy, 
with  the  sympathy  of  congenial  talent,  and  the  elo 
quence  of  fond  affection. 

It  has  accidentally  happened,  (for  it  was  not  in  the 
precise  order  of  time)  that  I  commenced  this  broken  re 
cord  of  our  deceased  collegiate  worthies  with  the  name  of 
Hamilton.  Can  I  close  it  more  appropriately,  or  with 
more  dignity  to  our  college,  than  with  that  of  Mason  ? 

MY  FRIENDS  AND  BROTHERS 

OF    THE    PHILOLEXIAN    AND    PEITHOLOGIAN    SOCIETIES — 

The  short  and  hurried  notices  I  have  now 
presented  to  you,  form,  I  fear,  a  very  poor  tribute  to  the 
worth  of  those  whom  I  have  aspired  to  celebrate ;  but, 
for  the  end  I  had  mainly  in  view  in  selecting  their  eulo 
gy  for  my  theme,  I  have  said  enough,  and  more  than 
enough.  I  have  hoped  to  show  you,  by  the  clear  evi 
dence  of  such  examples,  the  rich  advantages  of  educa 
tion  which  you  have  enjoyed,  the  solemn  duties  such  ad 
vantages  impose,  the  ample  heritage  of  renown  which  it 
has  fallen  to  you  to  preserve  or  augment,  the  claims  of 
society  upon  us,  the  broad  avenues  of  glorious  and  be 
neficent  exertion  that  open  before  us.  Thither  truth 
and  virtue  point  you  the  way.  Thither  the  great  men 
who  have  formerly  issued  from  these  halls  beckon  to  you 
to  follow  them. 

In  our  connexion  with  them  and  their  fame,  there  can 
be-  nothing  to  inflate  vanity  or  to  sooth  indolence.  It 
cannot,  like  the  privileges  and  pride  of  noble  birth,  be 
turned  to  any  purpose  of  delusion  to  others,  or  furnish 
food  for  our  own  self-conceit.  Our  accidental  education 


204  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS. 

in  the  halls  where  Jay,  and  Livingston,  and  Clinton 
once  studied,  confers  no  dignity  upon  us,  except  so  far  as 
we  may  worthily  emulate  them  ;  but  it  overwhelms  us 
with  shame  if  we  disgrace  the  memory  of  our  elder 
brothers — if  we  prove  false  and  recreant  to  our  academic 
mother. 

The  character  of  our  country's  genius  is  eminently 
practical ;  and  it  has  struck  me  with  great  force,  that  this 
too  is  the  predominant  characteristic  of  all  those  whom  I 
have  pointed  out  to  your  emulation.  Not  one  of  them 
was  a  mere  scholar,  contented  with  the  bare  acquirement 
of  learning,  or  of  learned  fame.  Their  science,  their 
literature,  their  talent,  were  all  consecrated  to  the  duties 
of  society,  and  the  general  weal.  In  this,  surely,  we 
may  imitate  them. 

Differing  as  they  did  in  some  important  points  of 
opinion  from  each  other — erring  as  they  sometimes  did 
in  conduct — those  differences  and  errors  may  teach  us 
the  infirmity  of  all  human  wisdom,  and  the  duty  of  can 
did  and  tolerant  judgment ;  yet  let  us  look  rather  to  their 
virtues  than  their  imperfections,  and  remember  that  they 
now  live  in  our  grateful  memory,  because  formerly  they 
lived  not  for  themselves  alone. 

Let  us  not  soothe  our  sloth,  or  vindicate  our  selfishness, 
by  the  poor  excuse,  that  their  excellence  was  the  fruit  of 
rare  genius,  or  still  rarer  contingencies  of  fortune,  which 
we  have  no  right  to  claim  or  to  hope.  For  us  this  is  no 
apology.  What  may  be  the  value  of  our  talents  or  at 
tainments  to  others  as  well  as  to  ourselves,  cannot  be 
known  until  it  be  tried.  If  we  are  once  excited  to  warm 
aspirations  after  true  excellence,  the  materials  of  action 
will  not  long  be  wanting. 

It  is  true  that  we  have  not  again  a  nation's  liberties  to 


COLUMBIA   COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  205 

achieve.  We  have  not  now  to  lay  once  more  the  foun 
dations  of  its  government.  But  our  liberties  are  always 
to  be  watched  over,  guarded,  and  defended.  Our  laws 
are  to  be  improved,  somewhat  in  their  equity,  much  in 
their  policy.  Physical  science,  much  as  it  has  advanced, 
may  now  be  carried  forwards  far  beyond  what  was  once 
deemed  the  extravagance  of  the  wildest  dreamer.  That 
science,  as  well  as  all  other  valuable  information,  is  no 
longer  to  remain  the  hoarded  possession  of  a  chosen  few, 
but  must  be  made  popular  and  elementary,  and  placed 
within  the  reach  of  all.  In  that  other  vast  region  of 
science  relating  to  mind  and  morals,  our  duties  are  still 
more  numerous  and  urgent.  Prejudices  and  errors  are 
to  be  vanquished ;  truth  is  sometimes  to  be  defended 
from  assault  or  insult,  always  to  be  inculcated,  explained, 
enforced. 

It  is  our  happy  lot  to  live  in  an  age  and  country  where 
the  field  of  usefulness  is  literally  unbounded  ;  where,  in 
the  indefinite  increase  of  numbers  and  general  intelli 
gence,  no  well-directed  effort  to  better  the  condition  of 
others  can  ultimately  fail.  As  it  recedes  from  us,  its  ef 
fect  swells  up  into  illimitable  and  startling  magnitude. 
Diffidence,  or  rather  sloth  in  her  garb,  may  whisper,  that 
it  will  be  far  beyond  our  strength  to  work  out  any  of 
those  conquests  over  moral  or  physical  evil,  for  which  pos 
terity  reserves  the  never-fading  wreath  of  true  renown, 
Be  it  so.  Yet  wherefore  has  talent  been  given  to  us,  and 
knowledge  painfully  won,  if  wre  cannot,  in  our  place  and 
sphere,  contribute  something  to  the  sacred  cause  of  vir 
tue,  freedom,  happiness,  truth  ?  Obscurely  it  may  be, 
but  not  the  less  honestly  ;  without  the  gratification  of 
personal  distinction,  but  certainly  not  without  the  better 
reward  of  conscious  well-doing. 


206  COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS. 

Nevertheless,  despite  of  these  and  all  such  considera 
tions,  it  must  be  that  in  some  of  us,  indeed,  at  times  in  all 
of  us,  low  thoughts  and  selfish  passions  will  gain  pos 
session  of  the  mind. 

I  am  speaking  to  scholars,  and  may  without  pedantry 
recall  to  them  that  familiar  but  striking  passage  of  an 
cient  history,  of  which  the  great  English  moral  poet  has 
made  so  exquisite  a  use — when  the  conqueror  of  his 
country, 

Ignobly  vain  and  impotently  great, 

Showed  Rome  her  Cato's  image  drawn  in  state  : 

As  her  dead  Father's  reverend  image  past, 

The  pomp  was  saddened,  and  the  day  o'ercast ; 

The  triumph  ceased — tears  gushed  from  every  eye 

Even  so  may  it  be  with  us.  The  memorials  of  those 
who  have  shared  our  early  studies,  and  turned  them  to 
worthier  uses  than  we  have  done,  need  not  be  sought  for 
in  the  sculptured  marble  and  bronze.  They  are  around 
us  and  about  us ;  they  meet  us  in  the  halls  of  legislation 
and  the  courts  of  justice  ;  in  the  busy  commerce  of  our 
ports,  and  the  richly-freighted  navigation  of  our  rivers 
and  canals ;  in  our  system  of  education,  our  schools,  our 
colleges,  and  pulpits.  Every  where  we  may  trace  the 
impress  of  their  minds,  every  where  we  may  hear  their 
monitorial  voices. 

Then,  whatever  tyrant  passion  may  have  obtained 
the  mastery  of  our  hearts  ;  whether  bad  ambition,  or  base 
avarice,  or  the  love  of  pleasure,  or  more  fatal  indolence ; 
let  us  listen  to  those  voices  ;  let  us  be  roused  by  the  ad 
monition  of  those  memorials  to  bid  the  triumph  of  the 
passions  cease,  and  suffer  the  world's  gaudy  pageant  to 
pass  along  unheeded. 


COLUMBIA    COLLEGE    ADDRESS.  207 

That  sway  is  then  at  an  end.  Those  misty  delusions 
fade  away.  The  guiding  star  of  our  youth  beams 
brightly  once  again  upon  the  rough  pathway  of  virtue 
before  us.  We  erect  ourselves  to  holier  contemplation, 
and  purer  desires.  We  gird  ourselves  to  the  true  purpose 
of  good  education,  the  performance  of  our  duty  to  our 
God,  our  country,  and  our  kind, 


NOTES 

TO  THE  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS. 


NOTE  I.  p.  180. 

E|  u> 


[*.£v  7}  Tav  Kcthov  Tt  $iot,7rgee,%ot[Aevav  eu 
rots  7rohhot$  ««}  Troi^x^oa-t^c^  rots  tTrcytvopevots  v\ 
yiverott    £o%&.      ra 


VtOt    7TCtg6gf6(tlVTCt:l  TTgOS  TO   TTcv   UTTOfAeveiV  V7TSP  T&V  XOivl 


avfyav  euxte/cts  —  Polybius,  Hist.  VI.  52. 

NOTE  II.  pp.  186—189. 

General  Hamilton  died  June,  1804,  at  Greenwich,  near  the 
city  of  New-  York,  whither  he  was  brought  after  the  fatal 
meeting  at  Weehawken,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Hudson. 
That  scene  has  been  commemorated  by  a  distinguished  gradu 
ate  of  the  college,  the  late  Robert  C.  Sands,  in  strains  worthy 
of  the  subject. 

When  the  great  strife  for  freedom  rose, 
Here  scouted  oft  her  friends  and  foes, 
Alternate  through  the  changeful  war, 
And  beacon  fires  flashed  bright  and  far  , 
And  here  when  Freedom's  strife  was  won, 
Fell  in  sad  feud  her  favoured  son  ;— 

Her  son,  —  the  second  of  the  band, 
The  Romans  of  the  rescued  land. 


210  NOTES  TO  THE 

Where  round  yon  cape  the  banks  ascend, 
Long  shall  the  pilgrim's  footsteps  bend  ; 
There  mirthful  hearts  shall  pause  to  sigh, 
There  tears  shall  dim  the  patriot's  eye. 

There  last  he  stood.    Before  his  sight 
FlOAved  the  fair  river,  free  and  bright, 
The  rising  Mart,  and  Isles  and  Bay, 
Before  him  in  their  glory  lay, — 
Scenes  of  his  love  and  of  his  fame, — 
The  instant  ere  the  death-shot  came. 

In  a  review  of  the  first  edition  of  this  address  by  the  same 
eloquent  and  fertile  writer,  after  extracting  the  passage  in  p. 
186  on  the  natural  alliance  of  sound  learning  with  liberal  poli 
tical  principles,  and  the  quotation  from  Akenside  with  which 
it  concludes,  he  adds  the  follow  ing  anecdote,  which  is  undoubt 
edly  correct.  "  Mr.  Verplanck  might  have  stated  as  a  most 
pointed  illustration  of  his  own  theory  and  the  poet's,  that  the 
boy  student,  Hamilton,  was  actually  engaged  whilst  listening 
daily  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Tory  President,  in  carrying  on 
with  him  a  controversy  in  the  public  papers,  in  which  the  lat 
ter  did  not  know  his  antagonist,  and  the  lad  in  the  people's 
opinion  certainly  had  the  best  of  the  argument." 

NOTE  III.  p.  194. 

The  diplomatic  correspondence  of  the  Revolution  preserved 
in  the  archives  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  was, 
for  obvious  reasons,  kept  secret  for  many  years.  Those  rea 
sons  having  now  ceased,  and  the  correspondence  become  mere 
matter  of  history,  it  was  ordered  some  time  ago  to  be  publish 
ed  under  the  direction  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
by  a  joint  resolution  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress;  and 
twelve  volumes,  containing  the  diplomatic  letters  of  Franklin, 
Jay,  J.  Adams,  Laurens,  and  others  have  been  printed.  In 
the  first  years  of  the  revolution,  the  correspondence  was  ad 
dressed  by  our  Ministers  abroad  to  the  Committee  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  the  negociations  conducted  under  their  direction. 
Various  inconveniencies  arose  from  this  arrangement,  and  our 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  211 

agents  abroad  "frequently  complained  that  their  despatches 
were  not  answered,  and  that  they  were  embarrassed  for  want 
of  intelligence."  In  consequence  of  this,  in  1781  the  commit 
tee  was  dissolved,  and  the  foreign  correspondence  placed  under 
the  control  of  a  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  to  which  office 
Robert  R.  Livingston  was  appointed.  When  he  came  into  the 
office,  says  the  preface  to  the  official  publication  of  this  corres 
pondence,  "a  salutary  change  took  place.  His  letters  are 
numerous,  full,  and  instructive."  This  too,  it  must  be  remem 
bered,  was  during  the  most  important  period  of  our  foreign 
relations,  when  the  negotiations  were  pending  which  led  to 
the  first  treaties  with  the  powers  of  the  European  continent 
acknowledging  our  independence — when  the  first  loans  were 
negotiated  abroad  on  the  credit  of  our  government — and  final 
ly,  when  the  definitive  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain  was 
settled  and  signed,  after  many  delays  and  difficulties. 

NOTE  IV.  p.  196. 

Col.  John  Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  a  graduate  of  1768,  is  now 
one  of  the  oldest  living  Alumni  of  the  college  of  New- York. 
His  agency  in  the  invention,  introduction,  and  gradual  im 
provement  of  steam-boats,  from  the  early  and  imperfect  expe 
riments  made  upon  the  Hudson  and  Delaware,  between  1785 
and  1800  up  to  the  admirable  mechanism  and  models  of  the 
boats  now  constructed  and  owned  by  his  sons,  is  well  known 
to  all  who  have  paid  any  attention  to  the  history  of  steam  na 
vigation  ;  and  had  not  the  plan  of  this  address  excluded  any 
honours  to  the  living,  it  would  have  claimed  a  distinguished 
place  in  these  pages.  I  cannot,  however,  pass  over  this  op 
portunity  of  noticing  another  less  known  claim  of  this  vene 
rable  and  patriotic  citizen  to  public  gratitude,  in  another  in 
stance  in  which  his  enlightened  science  anticipated  the  pro 
gress  of  improvement.  There  is  no  subject  which  now  occu 
pies  a  larger  portion  of  the  capital,  enterprize,  and  useful 
science  both  of  this  country  and  Europe,  than  the  use  of  rail 
roads.  But  many  years  before  their  adoption  and  use  upon 
any  extensive  scale,  and  long  before  the  combination  of  steam- 


212  NOTES  TO  THE 

carriages  with  them  had  been  suggested  elsewhere,  Col.  Ste 
vens  addressed  a  memoir  to  the  Canal  Commissioners  of  New- 
York,  then  engaged  in  the  preparatory  surveys  for  the  Erie 
and  Champlain  canals,  wherein  he  pointed  out  and  explained 
the  practicability  and  advantages  of  rail-roads  upon  the  largest 
possible  scale.  This,  with  the  correspondence  with  De  Witt 
Clinton,  R.  R.  Livingston,  and  Governeur  Morris,  which  re 
sulted  from  it,  he  published  in  1812,  under  the  title  of  "  Docu 
ments  tending  to  prove  the  superior  advantages  of  rail-ways 
and  steam-carriages  over  canal  navigation." 

In  1819,  he  again  brought  this  subject  before  the  public  in 
another  and  modified  form.  I  then  represented  the  city  and 
county  of  New- York  in  the  state  Legislature,  and  was  a  mem 
ber  of  the  committee  upon  canals  and  internal  improvement ; 
in  consequence  of  which  I  had  the  honour  of  presenting  an 
elaborate  and  able  memorial  from  Col.  Stevens,  wherein  he 
again  stated  and  explained  the  advantages  of  this  mode  of 
transportation,  with  all  the  additional  lights  which  the  expe 
rience  of  eight  years  had  afforded,  and  recommended  to  the 
Legislature  the  combining  of  rail-roads  with  the  great  system 
of  canal  improvement  in  which  the  state  was  then  ardently 
engaged.  He  was,  however,  still  too  far  in  advance  of  the 
times ;  and  though  the  memorial  received  a  respectful  refer 
ence,  and  was  ordered  to  be  printed  for  the  use  of  the  Legisla 
ture  and  distribution,  it  led  at  that  time  to  no  immediate 
practical  result,  though  it  was  probably  the  germ  of  many  of 
the  useful  private  enterprizes  of  this  nature  since  carried  into 
successful  operation. 


NOTE  V.  p.  198. 

Daniel  D.  Tompkins  between  the  years  1801  and  1825  was 
consecutively  chosen  or  appointed  a  member  of  the  Assembly 
of  New-York,  and  representative  in  Congress,  a  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  New- York,  four  times  Governor  of  the 
State,  a  Member  and  President  of  the  convention  for  revising 
its  constitution,  and  a  Vice  President  of  the  United  States. 


COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  ADDRESS.  213 

NOTE  VI.  p.  199. 

The  Rev.  Matthias  Bruen  died  a  short  time  before  the  de 
livery  of  this  address,  and  the  Rev.  Edmund  D.  Griffin  a  few 
days  after  it,  both  of  them  young  divines  of  high  promise  and 
distinguished  literary  talent.  Among  the  graduates  of  Colum 
bia  College  cut  off  immaturely,  who  have  left  behind  them 
honourable  contributions  to  the  science  or  literature  of  their 
country  may  be  specially  named,  the  Rev.  John  Blair  Linn, 
and  Matthias  Bruen  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  the  Rev. 
James  Eastburn,  Cornelius  R.  Duffie,  and  Edmund  D.  Grif 
fin,  of  the  Episcopal,  Dr.  Jacobus  Dyckman,  and  the  late  Robert 
C.  Sands. 


THE    LAW   OF    LITERARY   PROPERTY. 


[Congress  during  the  session  of  1830-31,  passed  a  law 
for  the  amendment  and  consolidation  of  the  several  acts  for 
the  protection  of  copy-rights  to  books,  prints,  &c.  This 
act  gave  much  additional  security  to  copy-rights  and  more 
than  doubled  the  term  of  legal  protection  to  them,  besides 
improving  and  simplifying  the  law  in  various  other  res 
pects.  Shortly  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress  a  public 
dinner  was  given  in  New- York  in  celebration  of  this  act  of 
wise  and  just  legislation,  by  a  number  of  citizens  distin 
guished  for  the  successful  cultivation  of  letters  and  the  arts. 
On  that  occasion  the  following  speech  was  made  in  reply 
to  a  toast  and  speech  from  the  chair,  complimentary  to  Mr. 
Verplanck  for  his  agency  in  producing  this  beneficial  re 
sult. 

As  it  contains  a  view  of  the  past  and  present  legislation 
of  the  United  States  upon  the  important  subject  of  Literary 
Property,  it  has  been  thought  proper  to  reprint  it  from  the 
newspapers  of  the  time,  and  preserve  it  here.] 


THE   LAW   OF   LITERARY    PROPERTY. 


I  THANK  you,  Gentlemen,  for  your  kindness.  I  cannot 
but  feel  that  is  to  that  I  am  mainly  indebted  for  the 
honour  which  you  are  now  pleased  to  bestow  upon  me. 
It  would,  indeed  be  a  poor  affectation  were  I  to  pretend 
that  I  did  not  look  with  satisfaction  on  the  part  which  it 
has  been  my  good  fortune  to  bear  in  protecting  and  ex 
tending  the  rights  of  publishers,  artists,  and  authors,  by 
the  recent  law ;  and  I  feel  the  honest  consciousness  that 
in  assisting  to  guard  their  interests  I  have  done  some 
service  to  the  state.  But  I  cannot  receive  in  silence  the 
whole  honour  of  that  measure.  There  are  others  who 
are  entitled  to  as  full  share  as  myself  in  your  thanks  and 
approbation.  My  only  merit  is  that  of  having  almost 
four  years  ago,  during  the  first  session  of  the  20th  Con 
gress,  called  public  attention  to  this  subject,  of  having 
with  some  industry  collected  the  requisite  information 
from  those  who  had  practically  experienced  the  difficul 
ties  and  imperfections  of  the  laws  then  in  force,  and  of 
having  framed  and  introduced  a  bill  for  the  purpose  of 
correcting  those  evils — a  bill  certainly  not  perfect,  but 
which  could  serve  as  a  convenient  basis  for  maturer 
legislation.  That  was,  as  we  all  recollect,  a  period  of 
high  political  ferment ;  when,  in  addition  to  the  usual 


218  THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY. 

causes  of  party  warmth,  Congress  was  agitated  by  those 
discussions  on  the  tariff  or  protecting  policy,  which  involve 
such  important  interests  and  always  excite  such  intense 
and  deep  feelings.  Although,  therefore,  the  bill  I  had 
prepared  received  the  approbation  of  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  Senators  and  Representatives,  of  both 
political  parties,  I  found  it  utterly  impossible  during  the 
Avhole  of  that  Congress  to  act  upon  the  bill,  or  even  to 
draw  the  attention  of  any  large  portion  of  either  house 
to  the  measure.  I  confess  that  at  the  time  I  was  disap 
pointed  and  mortified.  But  shortly  after  the  end  of  that 
Congress  and  before  the  meeting  of  the  next,  I  was  as 
much  gratified  by  a  spontaneous,  unexpected,  and  zealous 
support,  of  a  kind  which  in  this  country  of  free  opinion 
and  discussion  is  the  most  powerful  of  all — that  of  the 
press. 

It  would  be  unjust  on  this  occasion  to  omit  to  mention, 
with  special  honour,  the  first  and  ablest  champion  who 
then  appeared  in  this  cause,  and  I  ha\~e  only  to  regret 
that  I  cannot  mention  him  by  name — I  mean  the  author 
of  a  well-written,  and  well-reasoned  article  in  a  valua 
ble  legal  journal  of  Boston,  the  American  Jurist.  I  have 
not  the  pleasure  of  any  acquaintance  with  the  editors,  nor 
have  I  ever  been  able  to  ascertain  the  name  of  the  author 
of  the  article  to  which  I  allude.*  But  it  is  due  to  him 
to  say,  that  in  his  essay  on  the  law  of  the  copy-right,  he 
placed  in  a  striking  point  of  view  the  defects  of  the  then 
existing  legislation,  and  the  obvious  justice  and  policy  of 
an  efficient  reform,  asserting  the  rights  of  literary  property 
with  the  learning  of  an  accurate  lawyer,  the  congenial 

*  I  have  since  understood  that  it  was  from  the  pen  of  Willard  Phillips, 
Esq.  of  Boston. 


THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY.  219 

feeling  of  a  man  of  letters,  and  the  large  views  of  a 
statesman. 

This  able  writer  was  immediately  and  powerfully  se 
conded  by  the  newspaper  press,  less  elaborately  of  course, 
but  not  with  less  zeal  and  effect,  in  this  city,  in  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  and  Washington,  and  I  add  with  pleasure 
to  the  number  some  of  the  most  respectable  presses  in  the 
interior  of  this  state  and  of  Ohio. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  question  was  presented 
to  the  last  Congress  with  far  more  favourable  auspices. 
The  very  respectable  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  at  an  early  period,  consented  to  adopt 
my  bill  of  the  last  year,  and,  with  some  useful  modifica 
tions,  introduced  it  as  their  own.  In  doing  this,  they 
not  only  gave  to  it  the  great  weight  of  their  unanimous 
sanction,  but  also  added  to  its  support  the  very  ardent  and 
able  assistance  of  the  member  of  their  body  who  reported 
the  bill,  Mr.  Ellsworth,  of  Connecticut,  a  gentleman  in 
heriting  the  sterling  and  practical  talent  of  his  father,  the 
venerable  Oliver  Ellsworth,  whose  praises  I  need  not 
speak  here  ;  they  are  to  be  found  in  the  most  honoured 
records  of  our  legal  and  constitutional  history.  Mr.  Ells 
worth  accompanied  the  bill  with  a  brief  but  excellent 
report,  stating  its  intention  and  uses,  and  lucidly  and 
strongly  enforcing  the  claims  of  the  proposed  measure. 
The  bill  was  so  favourably  received  that  its  friends  ex 
pected  to  carry  it  through  without  any  serious  opposition. 
In  this  we  were  mistaken  ;  but  I  do  not  regret  the  cir 
cumstance,  since  it  led  to  a  decision  of  the  house  very 
honourable  to  them,  in  my  judgment,  and  equally  so  to 
the  cause,  the  triumph  of  which  we  have  assembled  to 
celebrate. 


220  THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY. 

As  the  debate  was  very  imperfectly  reported,  and 
the  particulars  of  it  not  generally  known,  I  may  be  in 
dulged  in  trespassing  upon  your  patience  by  briefly  stat 
ing  the  decision  to  which  I  allude. 

The  general  policy  of  extending  the  term  of  copy-right 
to  authors,  artists,  or  their  assigns,  so  as  to  double  their 
former  short  term,  as  proposed  by  the  bill,  was  decidedly 
objected  to  by  a  gentlemen  whose  experience,  ability,  and 
faithful  public  service  had  acquired  for  him  much  influ 
ence  in  the  House ;  and  he  still  more  warmly  and  point 
edly  opposed  the  particular  provision  designed  to  enable 
those  whose  literary  rights  had  been  secured  under  the 
former  laws,  to  receive  the  benefit  of  this  extension.  His 
argument  was  in  substance  this.  The  author  or  inventor 
has  and  can  have  no  rights  of  property  beyond  what  the 
law  confers  upon  him.  This  right  is  for  a  limited  term 
only,  and  at  the  expiration  of  that  term  his  book  or  in 
vention  ceases  to  be  his,  and  belongs  to  the  public.  If 
Congress  should  think  fit  to  extend  that  term  to  those 
who  may  hereafter  contract  with  the  public — though  the 
policy  of  so  doing  was  broadly  denied — they  have  cer 
tainly  the  power,  but  they  have  not  that  of  giving  to 
any  individual  for  twenty-eight  years  what  are  now  the 
vested  rights  of  the  individuals  who  compose  the  public. 

I  felt  myself  called  upon,  not  less  by  my  own  personal 
feeling  for  many  meritorious  individuals,  (some  of  them 
my  earliest  friends)  to  whom  this  provision  specially  ap 
plied,  than  by  a  sense  of  justice  and  the  duty  of  asserting 
what  I  believed  to  be  the  rights  of  mind,  to  repel  this  ar 
gument,  especially  as  it  seemed  to  have  made  some  im 
pression  upon  a  part  of  the  house. 

I  therefore  denied  that  the  right  of  the  author  or 
inventor  was  the  mere  creation  of  the  positive  law  of  the 


THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY.  221 

land.  I  maintained  that  the  right  of  property  in  the 
productions  of  intellectual  labour  was  as  much  founded 
in  natural  justice  as  the  right  of  property  in  the  produc 
tions  of  corporeal  labour — that  he  who  toils  with  the 
mind  is  as  honestly  entitled  to  the  fruits  of  that  toil  as 
he  who  works  with  the  hands.  That  the  recognition 
of  this  species  of  moral  right  of  property  is  a  natural 
suggestion  of  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  and  is 
manifested  even  in  the  spontaneous  and  general  feeling 
of  indignation  at  literary  plagiarism,  or  any  other  con 
version  of  reputation  or  of  property  acquired  by  mental 
exertion  to  the  use  of  others  than  those  who  had  thus 
earned  them.  That  such  was  alike  the  doctrine  of  the 
highest  speculative  ethical  authorities  and  of  the  soundest 
practical  lawyers,  and  especially  of  that  great  light  of 
modern  jurisprudence.  Lord  Mansfield,  all  whose  reason 
ing  in  the  great  English  case  of  the  law  of  Literary 
Property,  was  founded  upon  this  principle.  Such  too 
was  the  doctrine  of  the  framers  of  our  own  constitution, 
as  I  maintained  was  quite  evident  from  the  peculiarity 
of  their  language  on  this  point.  They  had  not  used 
any  word,  which  could  imply  that  they  thought  "  to  give 
rights  to  authors  and  inventors,"  but  had  authorized 
congress  "  to  promote  the  progress  of  science  and  the 
useful  arts  by  securing  to  authors  or  inventors  the  exclu 
sive  right  to  their  writings  or  inventions."  They  clearly 
did  not  think  they  were  enabling  congress  to  give  these 
rights,  but  presuming  them  to  exist,  they  provided  for 
protecting  them  by  a  legal  remedy.  The  limitation  of 
the  term  of  legal  exclusive  enjoyment  and  protection 
was  indeed  the  effect  of  positive  law.  But  this  limita 
tion  was  precisely  of  the  same  nature  with  the  terms  of 
prescription  of  property  and  limitation  of  actions  in  all 


222  THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY. 

legal  systems,  which  may  be  longer  or  shorter  according 
to  views  of  public  policy,  the  natural  and  moral  rights 
of  property  remaining  unchanged.  Therefore,  in  this 
instance  I  inferred,  we  did  nothing  more  than  prolong 
to  the  author  the  period  during  which  the  laws  of  his 
country  would  enforce  his  natural  rights  by  a  legal 
remedy. 

As  this  question  was  distinctly  presented  to  the  house 
on  this  argument,  and  as  on  the  vote  a  majority  of  above 
fifty  (being  nearly  two  to  one  of  all  the  members  present) 
refused  to  strike  out  the  section  containing  this  provision, 
I  cannot  but  consider  this  as  a  very  strong  declaratory  ex 
pression  of  legislative  opinion,  recognizing  the  true  and 
sound  doctrine  of  intellectual  and  literary  property. 

In  the  Senate,  the  bill  met  with  no  formal  opposition. 
On  the  contrary,  it  was  one  of  the  many  pleasing  inci 
dents  that  attended  the  passing  of  this  law,  that  there  it 
received  the  cordial  support  and  high  sanction  of  those 
brilliant  talents  which  had  been  arrayed  in  opposition  to 
each  other  on  the  greatest  questions  now  dividing  national 
politics.  It  was  examined  with  great  care  and  deep  in 
terest,  and  was  favourably  reported  upon  to  the  house  by 
Gen.  Hayne,  and  was  explained  and  supported  by  Mr. 
Webster. 

But  whilst  I  must  disclaim  much  of  the  honour  of  this 
improvement  of  the  law  of  literary  property,  which  is  the 
just  due  of  others  with  whom  I  have  but  co-operated,  I 
am  far  from  affecting  to  undervalue  the  importance  of  the 
measure  itself.  It  is  fit  and  salutary,  considered  merely 
as  an  emendation  of  the  law ;  since  it  removes  nume 
rous  difficulties  and  requisitions  of  the  former  statutes 
not  essential  for  any  public  use,  and  which  had  heretofore 
been  so  embarrassing  as  almost  to  defeat  the  object  of 


THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY.  223 

their  enactment,  and  of  the  constitutional  provision  on 
which  they  were  founded.  So  many  and  so  embarrassing 
were  these  difficulties,  that  I  have  learned  that  some  of 
the  most  valuable  copy-rights  ever  taken  out  in  this 
country  are  of  doubtful  validity,  and  that  even  one  of 
our  most  learned  legal  writers  has  hazarded  and  probably 
lost  the  copy-right  of  his  works  by  the  accidental  over 
sight  of  some  clerk  or  agent  of  his  printer.  It  extends 
the  protection  of  the  law  much  more  amply  than  here 
tofore  to  the  arts  of  design,  and  for  the  first  time  to  mu 
sical  compositions.  It  relieves  publishers  from  expensive 
advertising,  and  other  charges  and  requisitions  trouble 
some  to  all,  and  exceedingly  onerous  to  the  most  numerous 
and  least  costly,  but  not  the  least  valuable  publications,  as 
well  as  to  prints  and  maps.  It  secures  to  the  author  and 
artist,  in  lieu  of  the  former  narrow  term  of  fourteen  years, 
with  the  contingent  chance  of  one  renewal  if  living  at  the 
end  of  the  term,  the  sole  and  secure  benefit  of  his  work  for 
forty-two  years  ;  and  it  is  not  the  least  valuable  provision 
in  my  view,  that  it  also  extends  the  privilege  of  copy 
right  and  renewal  to  the  widow  and  children  of  the 
deceased  author ;  thus  securing  to  them  the  enjoyment 
of  the  most  honourable,  and  too  often  the  only  legacy, 
which  a  man  of  genius  can  leave  to  those  who  had 
depended  upon  him  for  bread,  who  had  shared  his  affec 
tions,  and  who  cherish  his  memory. 

It  is  an  act  of  justice  in  itself.  It  is  an  act  of  great  and 
useful  public  policy.  It  goes  far  to  attain  an  early  and 
favourite  object  of  the  founders  of  our  constitution  and 
the  fathers  of  our  civil  liberty.  For  it  is  a  fact,  I  believe 
little  known,  but  well  worthy  to  be  mentioned  with  honour, 
that  even  in  the  old  Congress  of  the  revolution,  one  of 
their  first  measures  of  general  and  pacific  legislation, 


224  THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY. 

after  the  dangers  of  the  war  had  ceased  to  press  upon 
them,  was  a  recommendation  to  the  states — for  Congress 
had  not  the  power  to  pass  such  a  law  under  the  old  con 
federation — to  provide  proper  remedies,  by  law,  for  the 
security  of  copy-rights  and  patents.  The  venerable 
Madison  was  a  member  of  the  committee  that  intro 
duced  this  measure. 

In  the  convention  which  framed  the  present  constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  resolutions  and  amendments 
to  the  same  effect  were  brought  forward  from  different 
quarters;  and  when  the  section  giving  Congress  this 
power  was  reported  in  the  form  it  now  bears,  it  appears 
to  have  been  adopted  unanimously.  These  venerable 
and  great  men  judged  well  and  wisely.  They  knew 
that  the  best  security  of  national  union  and  national 
power,  was  to  be  sought  in  the  influence  of  national 
literature,  science,  arts,  and  education.  They  saw  clearly 
that  their  own  legislation,  and  that  of  those  who  were 
destined  to  administer  the  government  they  had  reared, 
would  be  but  feeble  and  temporary  without  the  aid  of 
that  more  potent  and  far  more  lasting,  though  secret  and 
silent  legislation,  which  acts  on  the  mind  and  the  affec 
tions.  They  were  deeply  read  in  the  history  of  the  past, 
and  all  history  had  taught  them  that  truth.  Philosophy 
and  poetry  had  repeated  the  impressive  lesson. 

Lycurgus  fashioned  Sparta's  fame, 
And  Ccesar  to  the  Roman  name 

Gave  universal  sway. 
Where  are  they  ?  Homer's  reverend  page, 
Holds  empire  to  the  latest  age, 

And  tongues  and  dimes  obey.* 

If  it  be  the  rare  lot  of  few  countries  and  of  ages  far 
apart  to  produce  genius  peerless  as  that  of  Homer,  yet 

*  Akenside. 


THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY.  225 

our  patriots  saw  that  in  our  state  of  society  the  absence 
of  such  glory,  should  that  haply  be  the  destiny  of  our 
country — we  trust  far  otherwise — would  be  more  than 
supplied  in  aggregate  effect  by  the  number  of  powerful 
and  cultivated  minds,  their  activity,  intensity,  and  con 
stancy  of  action,  through  every  channel  of  education, 
of  instruction,  of  mental  gratification,  and  amusement. 

These  are  causes  which,  (to  use  the  expressive  phrase 
of  an  excellent  and  highly-gifted  countryman  of  ours, 
who,  if  he  had  not  been  impelled  by  his  genius  to  aspire 
at  being  the  Raphael  of  his  "native  land,  might  have 
been  its  Tasso — I  mean  Washington  Allston,)  these  are 
causes  and  influences  "  which  mould  a  nation's  soul." 
These  causes  are  now,  they  have  long  been,  at  work ; 
they  are  every  day  becoming  more  vigorous  j  and,  if  our 
country  is  to  escape  the  fate  of  other  free  governments — 
if  our  happy  frame  of  government — as  I  have  ever 
trusted  with  undoubting  hope — is  to  continue  for  ages  to 
shed  its  blessings  upon  our  posterity,  these  causes  will 
be  among  the  most  efficient  agents  in  perpetuating  our 
liberties  and  our  union.  Their  agency  works  its  way 
without  noise  or  pomp  ;  but  it  is  felt  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  It  is  exerted  not  less  in  the  humblest  literary 
effort  to  instruct  the  infant  mind,  than  in  the  labours  of 
the  teacher  of  high  science,  or  in  those  of  the  philo 
sophical  historian,  or  statesman,  or  in  the  glorious  inspi 
rations  of  the  orator,  the  painter,  or  the " poet. 

If  in  the  first  awakening  of  noble  and  disinterested 
eriiotions  in  the  youthful  breast,  those  generous  feelings 
are  associated  with  the  eventful  story  of  our  liberties — 
if,  when  the  thrilling  sympathies  of  the  young  are 
awakened  by  the  tale  of  courage,  virtue,  and  patriotism — 
of  Leonidas,  Cato,  or  Sydney,  they  are  taught  to  know 


226  THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY. 

too  the  names  and  deaths  of  Warren  and  Montgomery — 
if,  with  the  first  stirrings  of  the  imagination,  the  fancy 
can  be  fired  by  eloquence  or  poetry  drawing  its  materials 
or  illustrations  from  our  own  land — if  the  scenes  conse 
crated  by  acts  of  virtue  or  the  great  deeds  of  our  own 
history  are  made  familiar  by  the  pencil  of  high  art,  and 
brought  by  her  faithful  handmaid,  engraving,  before  the 
eyes  of  all  our  citizens — if,  with  the  lives  and  acts  of 
the  departed  good  and  wise  of  our  land,  our  sons  are 
thus  made  familiar  with  their  venerable  forms  "  and  fea 
tures,  the  great  soul's  apparent  seat1' — if  science,  morals, 
law,  can  be  impressed  upon  the  student's  mind,  not  as 
mere  abstract  truth  without  reference  to  our  own  moral 
or  physical  state,  but  as  they  bear  upon  our  own  condition, 
wants  and  character,  if  all  these  are  taught  by  men 
trained  under  our  own  institutions  and  are  illustrated 
from  all  that  is  about  us — then  indeed  will  be  formed, 
there  are  already  formed,  ties  of  our  union  and  guards 
for  our  liberties  stronger  than  any  laws  can  make, 
stronger  than  even  our  mutual  interests  (great  as  they 
are)  can  create,  far,  far  stronger  than  can  be  imposed  by 
arms  or  power. 

Such,  Gentlemen,  are  the  high  privileges  and  the  glo 
rious  duties  of  those  who  form  and  influence  the  nation's 
mind,  through  its  education,  its  learning,  its  tastes,  and 
its  affections.  It  is,  too,  the  peculiar  happiness  of  our 
own  times  and  of  our  country,  that  our  state  of  society 
co-operates  with  our  constitution  and  laws  in  compelling 
those  amongst  us  who  seek  for  either  honor  or  profit  in 
this  direction,  to  look  for  reward,  not  to  the  patronage  of 
the  great  or  opulent,  but  to  that  of  an  enlightened  and 
moral  public.  Here  they  are  freed  from  that  base  temp 
tation,  that  depravation  of  the  heart,  and  that  consequent 


THE  LAW  OF  LITERARY  PROPERTY.  227 

Degradation  of  the  intellect,  by  which,  in  other  countries, 
the  highest  minds  have  been  borne  down,  and  compelled, 
serpent  like,  to  crawl  in  the  dust  of  abject,  and  servile, 
and  profligate  dependance.  The  very  law  you  have 
this  day  assembled  to  honour,  is  alike  the  evidence  and 
the  result  of  this  happier  state  of  things  with  us.  How 
much,  then,  can  our  country  justly  claim  from  her 
authors,  her  artists,  and  all  her  sons  ministering  directly 
or  indirectly  to  the  mental  wants  of  the  people — from 
those  whom  she  thus  guards  in  their  honest  rights,  whom 
she  protects  from  temptation  to  wrong  !  But  these  are 
views  and  sentiments  already  familiar  to  all  whom  I  see 
around  this  board.  I  will  trespass  no  further  upon  your 
patience  than  to  express  them  again  more  briefly  in  the 
form  of  a  toast : 

Our  Authors  and  Artists — Their  country  recognizes 
and  protects  their  rights  of  intellectual  property.  It  is 
their  high  privilege  to  repay  that  protection  a  thousand 
fold,  in  their  country's  glory,  and  the  freedom  and  virtue 
of  her  sons. 


A    LECTURE 
INTRODUCTORY  TO  THE  COURSES 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 

MERCANTILE     ASSOCIATION 

OF    NEW-YORK, 

IN   1831—32. 


[The  Mercantile  Association  was  founded  a  few  years 
back,  with  a  view  of  advancing  the  moral  and  intellectual 
culture  of  the  large  body  of  young  men  employed  as  mer 
chants'  clerks  in  the  city  of  New-York.  After  establish 
ing  a  well-selected  library,  with  excellent  reading-rooms, 
its  enterprising  and  judicious  patrons  and  founders  under 
took  to  provide  regular  courses  of  popular  lectures  in 
various  branches  of  science  and  art.  These  were  nume 
rously  attended  for  some  years. 

During  the  last  two  years,  some  very  distinguished  citi 
zens  have  added  fresh  interest  to  the  regular  courses  of 
scientific  lectures,  by  short,  voluntary  courses  on  such 
branches  of  learning  or  art  as  were  most  familiar  with 
their  previous  pursuits.  The  subjoined  lecture  was  deli 
vered  as  introductory  to  the  several  courses  on  Natural 
Philosophy,  Chemistry,  Commercial  Law,  Moral  Science, 
Political  Economy,  and  the  Fine  Arts,  which  were  deli 
vered  during  the  winter  of  1831 — 32.] 


MERCANTILE    LECTURE. 


I  congratulate  you,  Gentlemen  of  the  Mercantile  Asso 
ciation,  on  the  occasion  which  brings  us  together.  Your 
institution,  founded  for  the  moral  and  intellectual  im 
provement  of  the  commercial  youth  of  this  city,  has  long 
been  eminently  useful.  Its  judiciously  selected  library 
and  well  supplied  reading-rooms,  with  the  excellent  lec 
tures  and  addresses  heretofore  delivered  in  this  hall,  have 
proved  not  less  honourable  to  the  zeal  and  public  spirit  of 
its  founders  than  important  in  their  effects  on  the  charac 
ter  of  an  immense  body  of  young  men  full  of  ardour, 
intelligence,  and  enterprise,  who  are,  year  after  year,  car 
rying  into  active  life  the  deep  and  lasting  influences  of 
their  present  pursuits  and  amusements. 

Surrounded  as  they  are  on  all  sides,  in  this  gay  and 
opulent  city,  with  temptations  to  idle  dissipation  or  vicious 
indulgence,  exposed  to  the  contagion  of  the  worst  and 
most  alluring  examples,  freed,  as  many  of  them  are, 
from  the  salutary  restraint  imposed  by  the  sanctity  of  the 
parental  home,  and  deprived  of  its  resources  of  domestic 
fire-side  pleasures,  they  have  discovered  in  these  halls 
amusements,  ever  new  and  fascinating,  innocent  and  in 
tellectual.  Here  they  have  met  associates  and  found 
friends  eager  in  the  same  pure  enjoyments.  Here  they 


232  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

have  been  led  from  harmless  entertainment  to  useful 
reading,  and  thence  onward  to  the  most  noble  and  invi 
gorating  exercises  of  the  mind  in  the  study  and  contem 
plation  of  physical  and  moral  truth. 

But  the  course  of  lectures  which  has  been  arranged 
for  this  winter  forms  a  new  epoch  in  the  progress  of  this 
association.  It  is  not  merely  that  fresh  and  valuable 
sources  of  information  will  now  be  opened.  That  is  much. 
But  I  cannot  but  regard  the  number,  the  talent,  and  the 
well-earned  reputation  of  those  public-spirited  citizens 
who  have  volunteered  to  deliver  the  several  courses,  as 
giving  a  most  flattering  testimony  to  the  value  of  this 
institution.  It  is  a  proof  of  the  deep  public  interest  taken 
in  the  character  and  welfare  of  our  commercial  youth, 
whilst  at  the  same  time  it  must  furnish  to  them  motives 
of  kindling  excitement  in  the  pursuit  of  all  that  can  ex 
alt  and  dignify  the  character  of  an  American  merchant. 

These  gentlemen,  severally  and  honourably  distin 
guished  in  the  law,  science,  fine-arts,  literature,  politics, 
and  public  eloquence  of  the  country,  divided  in  many 
points  of  opinion,  but  uniting  in  a  generous  zeal  for  the 
public  good,  have,  amidst  the  pressure  of  private  avoca 
tions,  found  or  made  time  to  devote  a  portion  of  their 
talents  and  acquirements  to  the  instruction  of  those  whom 
I  now  address.  It  will  not  be  invidious  to  distinguish 
amongst  them  two  venerable  and  patriotic  men,  one  of 
whom,  for  years,  administered,  with  masterly  ability,  our 
national  finances,  or  was  engaged  in  the  negotiation  of 
treaties  involving  our  dearest  interests  ;*  whilst  the  other 
presided,  for  nearly  as  long  a  period,  in  the  highest  courts 
of  common  law  and  of  equity  in  this  rich  and  populous 

*  Hon.  Albert  Gallatin. 


MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 


233 


state,  with  a  reputation  that  cannot  be  increased  by  any 
praise  of  mine.*  Such  are  the  men  who  now  delight 
to  unfold  to  the  young  inquirer  the  elements  of  those  sci 
ences  on  which  their  own  fame  was  founded.  This  is 
an  example  worthy  of  republican  antiquity,  honourable 
to  our  state  of  society,  and  especially  honourable  to  you, 
for  whom  the  labour  was  undertaken.  Let  it  be  also  to 
us  and  to  you  an  animating  example  of  unceasing  and 
unflagging  devotion  to  the  common  good,  and  the  welfare 
of  others. 

I  cannot  but  feel  it  as  a  high  compliment  to  have  been 
invited  to  deliver  an  introductory  lecture  to  such  a  course 
of  instruction,  and  for  this  I  tender  my  most  grateful 
acknowledgements. 

The  lectures  intended  to  be  delivered  here,  though 
by  men  intimately  and  extensively  conversant  with 
the  subjects  they  have  selected,  must  yet,  from  the 
narrow  compass  to  which  they  must  be  confined,  be  but 
sketches  or  outlines,  of  those  several  subjects.  These 
will  stimulate  the  mind  to  inquiry,  furnish  broad  views 
and  leading  principles,  as  well  as  point  out  the  sources  of 
more  minute  and  accurate  knowledge;  but  they  will 
not,  nor  do  they  profess  to  make  you  masters  of  any  of 
those  extensive  walks  of  science,  of  art,  of  taste,  or  of 
speculation.  To  become  a  proficient  in  any  one  of  these 
requires  the  labour  of  years  ;  to  become  skilful  in  all  of 
them  must  demand  the  constant  toil  of  a  long  and  stu 
dious  life.  Of  what  use  then  to  those  who  can  give 
to  such  pursuits  little  more  than  hasty  and  broken  inter 
vals  of  time,  and  minds  distracted  by  other  duties  and 
other  cares — of  wrhat  real  use  is  that  general  and  su- 

*  Chancellor  Kent, 


234  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

perficial  information  to  be  gained  by  these  and  similar 
aids? 

The  question  is  natural,  and  it  is  important.  I  have, 
therefore,  thought  that  the  reply  to  it,  showing  the  true 
advantages  of  general  knowledge  to  men  engaged  in  ac 
tive  business,  would  l?e  no  unappropriate  or  unfruitful 
subject  for  this  introductory  lecture. 

Upon  this  head  the  pedantry  of  erudition,  and  the  pe 
dantry  of  worldly  wisdom  are  for  once  agreed  in  uniting 
to  despise  and  degrade  such  acquirements,  the  one, 
viewing  them  as  leading  only  to  vanity  and  self-conceit, 
and  the  other,  as  a  trifling  waste  of  time  for  no  practical 
purpose. 

Pope,  a  poet  distinguished  above  his  brethren  for  saga 
city  and  shrewdness  of  observation  upon  men  and  man 
ners,  has  said — 

"  A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing ; 
Drink  deep,  or  taste  not  the  Pierian  spring  : 
There,  shallow  draughts  intoxicate  the  brain, 
And  drinking  largely  sobers  us  again." 

Triis  opinion,  so  agreeable  to  the  pride  of  learning, 
has  been  re-echoed  by  thousands  with  whom  no  poet 
would  be  an  authority  on  any  other  question,  until  it  has 
almost  become  an  adage.  Like  all  remarks  of  acute  ob 
servers,  and  like  all  maxims  obtaining  any  currency,  this 
too  has  its  share  of  truth ;  had  it  not  so,  it  would  never 
have  been  received  as  true.  But  it  is  true  only  of  the 
smatterer  in  every  thing  ;  it  is  true  only  of  him  who  has 
never  disciplined  himself  to  any  regular  pursuit  what 
ever;  of  him  whose  superficial  acquirements  are  not  the 
recreations  of  an  active  and  useful  life,  nor  the  decorations 
of  a  mind  exercised  in  other  and  solid  avocations. 


MERCANTILE  LECTURE.  235 

Of  the  vague  knowledge  of  such  a  man,  pride  and  con 
ceit  may  well  be  the  result,  but  they  are  much  more  fre 
quently  its  cause.  All  human  knowledge,  however 
learned  arrogance  may  strive  to  disguise  it,  is  but  little. 
This  then  is  truly  but  a  question  of  more  or  less.  The 
profoundest  scholar — the  man  of  the  rarest  and  the  lof 
tiest  science,  who  loses  sight  of  this  truth,  and  forgets  the 
immensity  of  the  Unknown,  in  gazing  fondly  upon  his 
own  little  treasure  of  fancied  science,  may  be  as  truly 
intoxicated  by  such  comparatively  shallow  draughts,  as 
the  most  superficial  sciolist,  whom  he  scorns.  And  this 
intoxication,  too,  if  we  can  trust  to  frequent  observation, 
is  far  more  likely  to  befall  the  professed,  but  trifling  scho 
lar,  than  the  accurate  man  of  business,  who  seeks  in 
books  a  refreshment  from  toil,  or  who  flies  to  science  to 
satisfy  the  craving  desire  of  knowledge.  But  all  knowl 
edge  is  in  itself  valuable.  It  was  made  for  man,  and  his 
mind  was  formed  to  covet  and  grasp  at  its  attainment. 
It  is  an  innate  desire,  springing  from  the  highest  appe 
tencies  of  his  nature,  the  desire  and  the  object  of  it  being 
alike  the  kind  gifts  of  his  Creator. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  pause,  and  cast  a  rapid  glance  at 
the  means  of  intellectual  accomplishment  which  in  this 
age  and  country,  nay,  in  this  very  Institution,  are  within 
the  reach  of  any  young  man,  who,  without  defrauding 
his  daily  calling  of  a  single  duty,  or  a  single  thought  due 
to  it,  will  yet  devote  to  better  objects  those  hours  which 
might  be  passed  in  indolence  or  folly. 

Let  us  suppose  these  hours  faithfully  and  judiciously 
employed  for  a  few  years,  and  then  estimate  fairly  the 
amount  and  the  value  of  the  information  thus  accumu 
lated.  Let  us  see  whether  the  knowledge  thus  reward 
ing  his  liberal  curiosity,  and  which  must  confessedly  fall 


236  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

short  of  the  accuracy  and  extent  of  that  science,  won  by 
the  exclusive  votary  of  learning,  is  yet  in  a  ay  sense  worth 
less  or  little. 

It  has  been  justly  remarked  by  more  than  one  philo 
sophical  observer,  that  there  is  in  the  nature  of  our  men 
tal  operations  and  of  language,  in  the  power  of  classify 
ing  insulated  facts  and  discoveries  under  general  terms 
and  broad  laws  of  universal  application,  in  the  corres 
ponding  power  of  again  deducing  individual  truths  from 
these  general  laws,  a  provision  for  the  gradual  and  pro 
gressive  improvement  of  mankind.  As  knowledge  is 
extended  it  becomes  more  easy  of  acquisition  ;  for  as  the 
magnitude  and  the  variety  of  known  truths  are  aug 
mented,  in  the  same  proportion  the  processes  of  study 
necessary  to  acquire  them  have  been  abridged  and  sim 
plified. 

An  eloquent  French  mathematician,  in  a  frequently 
quoted  passage,*  has  admirably  illustrated  this  truth  by 
the  history  of  mathematics,  from  the  elementary  propo 
sitions  of  geometry,  treasured  up  by  the  Egyptian  priest 
hood,  down  to  the  conclusions  that  have  limited  the  last 
inquiries  of  the  modern  calculus.  He  has  shown 
throughout  the  whole,  how  every  discovery  of  genius 
has  been  accompanied  or  followed  by  a  simplification  of 
science,  making  these  discoveries  level  to  the  compre 
hension  of  all. 

Thus  it  is,  to  apply  this  truth  to  our  own  case,  that 
the  leisure  hours  of  the  modern  merchant,  should  he 
give  that  direction  to  his  studies,  will  soon  place  him  far 
beyond  the  mathematical  attainments  of  the  most  skilful 
of  the  doctors  or  professors  of  Padua  or  Paris,  two  cen- 

*  Condorcet,  as  quoted  by  Stewart  and  others. 


MERCANTILE   LECTURE.  237 

turies  ago.  That  acquaintance  with  the  branches  of 
mathematics,  entering  into  the  familiar  uses  of  life,  such 
as  to  the  mathematician  of  our  own  day  may  well  seem 
"  a  little  learning,"  indeed,  was  but  two  or  three  genera 
tions  ago  the  proudest  boast  of  those  who  had  drunk 
longest  and  deepest  at  the  head  springs  and  fountains  of 
the  severer  sciences.  Now,  surely,  the  knowledge  so 
valuable  then,  can  have  lost  nothing  of  its  real  value  in 
use  by  losing  much  of  its  rarity,  and  becoming  more 
easy  of  access. 

Nor  is  it  alone  in  this  rigid  methodical  science  that  the 
progressive  accumulation  of  knowledge  has  brought  with 
it  a  proportional,  or  more  than  proportional  increase  of 
facility  in  acquisition. 

Let  us  select  from  among  the  illustrious  dead  of  past 
ages  some  great  man  ardent  in  the  search  of  philosophy, 
and  crowned  with  all  its  honours  ;  a  man  who  wasted  no 
labour  on  the  mere  curiosities  of  learning  ;  whose  talent, 
character,  and  station,  led  him  to  apply  his  powerful 
intellect  to  such  studies  only  as  had  a  direct  bearing  on 
the  uses  of  society  or  the  conduct  of  life.  Let  us  then 
estimate,  at  their  real  worth,  the  attainments  of  such  a 
man.  Let  us,  for  example,  take  Cicero.  He  was  a 
man  of  wealth,  rank,  and  genius,  whose  eloquence  was 
the  rich  fruit  of  many  a  midnight  study,  and  who  by 
that  eloquence  became  the  saviour  of  his  country.  Na 
tions  were  his  clients,  wealth  and  power  were  the  reward 
of  his  talents ;  but,  though  he  neglected  no  duty,  and 
shrunk  from  no  toil,  he  fled  gladly  from  the  tumultuous 
applause  of  the  forum  and  the  sway  of  the  senate  to  the 
silence  of  his  library.  "  Who  has  a  right  to  blame  me," 
said  this  model  of  brilliant  and  successful  literary  applica 
tion,  "  who  has  a  right  to  blame  me  if  that  time  which 

u 


238  MERCANTILE    LECTURE. 

other  men  are  wont  to  bestow  upon  festivals  and  shows, 
upon  grosser  and  meaner  pleasures,  or  even  upon  the 
rest  and  relaxation  of  body  and  mind  ;  if  as  much  time 
as  they  give  to  convivial  feasts,  to  their  sports,  or  to  the 
gaming-table,  so  much  have  I  given  to  letters  and  phi 
losophy  ?" 

"  Other  studies,"  said  this  ardent  and  accomplished 
student,  then  in  the  height  of  his  fame  and  the  noon-day 
of  life,  "  other  studies  belong  to  particular  times,  or  places 
or  callings,  or  periods  of  life  alone ;  but  these  nourish 
and  strengthen  the  youthful  mind,  they  please  and  soothe 
old  age.  They  adorn  prosperity,  they  afford  a  refuge 
and  consolation  in  adversity.  They  delight  at  home, 
they  are  useful  abroad.  They  are  with  us  and  about 
us,  by  day  and  by  night,  on  the  road  and  in  the  fields." 

Such  was  the  ardent  eulogy  which  the  most  accom 
plished  man  of  antiquity  poured  forth  on  his  favourite 
studies  in  one  of  the  most  magnificent  effusions  of  his 
genius.  It  was  doubtless  just,  and  yet  the  amount  of 
useful  acquirement  and  elegant  accomplishment,  deserv 
ing,  as  it  did,  all  his  toils  and  all  his  praise,  that  this 
great  man  could  attain,  not  only  by  diligent  study,  but 
by  travel  extensive  as  the  then  known  world,  and  by 
wealth  and  power,  devoted  to  the  collection  of  books  and 
works  of  art — all  this  was  far  inferior  to  that  within 
the  reach  of  any  one  wTho  now  listens  to  me. 

This  assertion  may  seem  absurd.  Its  apparent  extra 
vagance  may  provoke  a  smile,  yet  the  slightest  analysis 
will  convince  us  of  its  substantial  truth.  The  orator, 
philosopher,  and  statesman,  of  the  Roman  republic's  last 
age,  had  studied  under  the  first  teachers  of  Athens,  then 
still  "  the  mother  of  arts  and  school  of  sages,"  all  that 
the  times  knew  of  physical  philosophy.  He  had  become 


MERCANTILE    LECTURE.  239 

intimately  acquainted  with  the  theories  and  conjectures 
of  the  most  celebrated  teachers  ;  but  he  soon  learned 
that  theory  and  conjecture  were  all  that  they  had  to 
teach,  and  "  finding1  no  end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost," 
concluded  that  it  was  .impossible  for  a  wise  man  to  form 
any  definite  opinion  on  the  laws  of  nature.  He  turned 
away  from  the  study  of  the  material  world,  dissatisfied, 
declaring,  with  Socrates,  that  such  inquiries  were  rather 
curious  than  profitable. 

Let  us  now  look  upon  our  own  times  and  country, 
and  mark  what  are  the  opportunities  of  knowledge 
afforded  to  those  who  can  employ  the  hours  not  en 
grossed  by  real  business,  in  attending  the  lectures  of 
some  competent  teacher  of  physical  science.  Here,  a 
learned  and  able  professor,  with  the  aid  of  an  apparatus 
in  which  the  most  recondite  discoveries  of  science  are 
experimentally  illustrated  by  some  of  the  most  ingenious 
and  delicate  productions  of  mechanical  skill,  can  unfold 
to  the  attentive  pupil  the  great  laws  of  attraction  and 
repulsion,  of  motion,  of  mechanics,  and  of  light.  These 
are  laws  generalized  from  thousands  of  observations  and 
experiments,  perhaps  destined  hereafter  to  be  more  accu 
rately  ascertained,  or  resolved  into  even  still  more  uni 
versal  rules,  but  never  to  be  contradicted  or  unsettled  by 
any  future  system.  He  can  guide  you  to  an  acquaint 
ance  with  truths  beyond  the  reach  of  mere  observation, 
but  learnt  from  the  demonstration  of  pure  reason  ;  those 
mathematical  laws  of  matter  and  motion,  which,  when 
once  apprehended,  are  felt  to  'be  beyond  the  powrer  of 
time  or  change,  to  reach  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  our 
little  earth,  to  extend  throughout  all  actual  or  possible 
creation,  to  be  infinite  and  eternal  as  the  Omnipotent 


240  MERCANTILE    LECTURE. 

himself,  and.  as  it  were,  a  natural  revelation  of  his  im 
mutable  and  all-wise  government. 

In  the  kindred  science  of  chemistry  he  will  exhibit  to 
you  the  boldest  achievements  of  science,  and  her  hum 
blest  and  most  useful  toils  ;  now  analyzing  the  atmos 
phere,  or  resolving  the  globe  into  its  constituent  elements  ; 
and  now  descending,  with  patient  industry,  to  the  aid 
of  the  dyer  at  his  vat,  or  the  metallist  at  his  furnace ; 
or  to  throw  the  friendly  light  of  her  safety-lamp,  over 
the  perilous  path  of  the  miner  in  the  dark  bowels  of  the 
earth. 

Now  then,  let  me  ask,  is  such  knowledge,  be  it  general, 
be  it  comparatively  superficial — can  such  knowledge  be 
worthless  ?  Had  antiquity  obtained  a  prophetic  glimpse 
of  that  science  now  laid  open  to  your  inquiries,  it  would 
have  been 

"  The  prophet's  prayer,  the  glad  diviner's  theme, 
The  old  man's  vision,  and  the  young  man's  dream." 

Must  not  such  knowledge  give  new  interest  to  all  that 
we  see  about  us  ?  Must  it  not  fill  the  soul  with  kindling 
and  ennobling  thoughts  ?  Must  it  not  give  juster  con 
ceptions  of  the  wisdom  and  benevolence  of  the  Creator, 
of  the  powers,  the  duties,  and  the  destinies  of  man  ? 

If  from  natural  and  chemical  we  turn  to  moral  phi 
losophy,  the  same  parallel  holds  good.  In  that  most 
favourite  study  of  Cicero's,  the  science  of  mind  and 
morals,  how  feeble  is  the  light  that  glimmered  amidst 
the  darkness  of  ancient  discussions  and  systems  ;  how 
rough  the  road  to  knowledge,  how  uncertain  its  attain 
ment  !  But  the  youth  who  is  now  incited  by  a  generous 
desire  to  know  himself  and  his  duties,  can  travel  in  a 
smoother  road,  and  follow  surer  guides.  Here  he  will 


MERCANTILE    LECTURE.  241 

be  directed  to  seek  light  from  those  who  have  kindled 
the  torch  of  science  at  a  consecrated  flame  ;  writers  who, 
like  Fenelon,  and  Addison,  and  Johnson,  have  "  given 
ardour  to  virtue,  and  confidence  to  truth  ;"  or  who,  like 
Pascal,  Paley,  or  Butler,  have  made  logic  and  meta 
physics  the  handmaids  of  sober  piety. 

Of  history,  literature,  poetry,  the  elegant  arts,  of  all 
that  by  example  unfolds  the  mysteries  of  the  heart,  of 
all  those  fair  illusions  which  spread  their  charms  over 
life,  and  soothe  its  pains  or  anguish,  how  ample  is  the 
treasure  contained  in  any  well-selected  English  library 
of  original  and  translated  authors !  How  far  superior 
in  amount,  in  variety,  and  (with  a  very  few  rare  excep 
tions)  in  excellence,  to  the  treasured  volumes  of  Cicero's 
much-loved  collection  ! 

Even  in  jurisprudence,  Cicero's  own  and  peculiar 
department,  the  brief  and  elementary,  but  able  course  of 
commercial  law  to  be  delivered  here,  will  afford  to  you 
information  which,  could  it  have  been  offered  to  the  illus 
trious  Roman  advocate,  would  have  filled  him  with  de 
light  and  astonishment.  I  need  not  speak  of  the 
value  of  that  information  to  you  as  men  of  business  or 
men  of  the  world  ;  but  independently  of  its  immediate 
and  personal  uses,  it  is  in  itself  admirable.  This  is' not 
like  some  parts  of  jurisprudence,  the  fruit  of  blind  usage 
or  arbitrary  enactment.  It  is  the  happy  result  of  the 
energies,  intelligence,  enterprise,  and  ingenuity  of  the 
whole  civilized  commercial  world,  applied  to  legal  pur 
poses  by  a  succession  of  the  strongest  and  most  acute 
judicial  minds  of  France,  Holland,  England,  and  America 
— much  the  greater  part  of  it,  bearing  the  test  of  Cicero's 
own  definition  of  rational  and  equitable  law,  being  alike 
good  law  at  London,  Paris,  Amsterdam,  and  New-York. 


MERCANTILE    LECTURE. 

Classical  latinity  does  not  even  contain  a  name  for  the 
contract  of  insurance.  Commerce,  the  Romans  left  to 
be  carried  on  by  the  slaves  or  freedmen  of  their  patrician 
senators  ;  and  navigation  was  pursued  only  with  a  view 
to  war  and  conquest.  But  in  our  law  of  insurance,  in 
that  of  shipping,  and  of  exchange  and  negotiable  paper, 
those  sound  and  clear  principles  of  reason  and  natural 
equity  which  the  old  Roman  law  always  asserted  in 
theory,  are  applied  to  the  most  ingenious  inventions  of 
modern  times,  for  giving  circulation  to  capital,  and  facility 
and  safety  to  commerce. 

I  know  not,  then,  why  you  may  not  with  equal,  and 
more  than  equal  justice,  apply  to  your  own  studies  the 
eulogy  of  the  eloquent  ancient  upon  his.  These  our 
studies,  may  you  say,  snatched  as  they  are  amidst  the 
calls  of  business,  and  in  hours  given  by  others  to  indo 
lence  or  vice,  "  will  nourish  and  strengthen  the  ^/outhful 
mind,  and  soothe  and  gladden  old  age  ;  they  will  adorn 
prosperity,  and  furnish  a  refuge  and  consolation  in  ad 
versity." 

The  present  state  of  society,  thus  abounding  in  the 
means  of  instruction,  has  one  marked  point  of  contrast 
to  that  of  former  ages ;  and  it  is  one  which  it  is  the  evi 
dent  tendency  of  some  of  the  most  important  improve 
ments  of  society  in  wealth  and  skill,  constantly  to 
augment.  It  is,  that  as  mankind  advances  in  art  and 
power,  the  division  of  labour  grows  greater  and  greater. 
As  the  aggregate  power  of  society  thus  increases,  the 
danger  is  that  that  of  each  individual  may  be  narrowed 
to  the  limits  of  his  personal  occupations.  The  ancient, 
like  the  savage,  was  called  upon  to  know  and  to  do  all 
that  could  be  known  or  done  by  any  man  of  the  times 
and  nation.  The  member  of  a  modern  civilized  state 


MERCANTILE    LECTURE.  243 

has  frequently  but  one  part  to  perform.  He  is  but  a 
single  wheel  or  cog  in  a  huge  and  complicated  machine. 
The  inevitable  tendency  of  this  is  to  enfeeble  and  dwarf 
the  mind  of  every  individual.  The  mere  scholar,  the 
mere  lawyer,  the  mere  merchant,  the  mere  artisan,  can 
not  attain  the  full  perfection  of  his  nature,  or  his  full 
capacity  for  happiness.  But  it  is  an  admirable  and 
benevolent  provision  of  Providence,  that  this  very  ad 
vance  of  the  aggregate  wisdom  and  power  of  society, 
thus  swallowing  up  the  strength  of  individuals,  carries 
with  it  its  own  corrective,  in  those  very  facilities  of 
acquirement  of  which  I  have  spoken.  Thus  he  who  is 
confined  by  the  order  or  duties  of  society  to  a  single 
round  of  occupations,  can  yet  find,  in  the  leisure  left  at 
his  own  disposal,  the  opportunity  of  liberal  inquiry,  and 
that  variety  of  contemplation  which  exercises  and  disci 
plines  the  whole  intellectual  man. 
,  In  this  wide  survey  of  knowledge,  the  pride  natural 
to  those  who  have  successfully  exerted  themselves  in 
some  limited  sphere,  is  rebuked  by  comparison  with  ac 
quirements  beyond  their  reach  ;  and  thus,  whilst  general 
knowledge  makes  man  more  respectable,  more  useful, 
and  more  happy,  it  cannot  fail,  unless  in  minds  singular 
ly  ill  constituted,  to  produce  that  rational  humility,  so 
finely  called  by  Burke,  "  the  deep  and  broad  foundation 
of  every  virtue." 

In  addition  to  these  considerations  of  the  benefits  of 
an  acquaintance  with  science  to  man,  in  his  personal  and 
individual  interests  alone,  there  are  others,  touching  the 
common  interests  of  society.  In  proportion  as  knowledge 
is  widely  diffused,  morals  are  secured  and  liberty  protect 
ed.  If  there  is  any  circumstance  wherein  the  present 
age  bears  an  advantageous  comparison  with  preceding 


244  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

times,  such  as  to  authorize  a  rational  and  confident  ex 
pectation  of  the  extension  and  permanence  of  free  insti 
tutions,  it  is  to  be  found  here.  Probably  France  and 
England  a  century  ago  contained  as  many  men  pro 
foundly  skilled  in  their  several  departments  of  science, 
learning,  and  art,  as  they  now  do ;  but  how  different  was 
the  state  of  the  general  mass. 

It  was,  I  believe,  Steele  who,  in  describing  the  learned 
lawyer  of  his  day,  makes  his  whole  conversation  begin 
and  end  with  the  great  case  of  Grimgribber.  This  was, 
of  course,  a  caricature,  but  still  from  the  hand  of  such  a 
master  it  was  probably  a  likeness,  though  broad  and  dis 
torted.  But  it  was  also  in  some  degree  the  portrait  of 
every  other  class.  Civilization  had  then  divided  society 
into  its  several  occupations,  but  general  information  had 
not  yet  corrected  the  narrowness  accompanying  that  di 
vision.  The  man  of  letters  was  then  a  mere  man  of  the 
closet,  or  else  a  mere  author  about  town,  the  dependant 
of  the  great  and  of  the  theatres ;  and,  in  either  case, 
equally  ignorant  of  the  substantial  business  of  the  world. 
Their  Grimgribber  was,  as  it  might  happen,  the  slang 
of  the  town,  or  the  pedantry  of  ancient  metres  and  phi 
lological  trifling.  The  merchant  was  proud  of  knowing 
nothing  be)^ond  his  counting-house,  and  the  country  gen 
tleman  led  a  life  of  vulgar  enjoyment  and  boisterous  ig 
norance.  Below  these  there  was  no  public,  who  read  or 
who  reasoned.  In  France  this  state  of  things  was  va 
ried  only  by  the  more  effeminate  profligacy  of  the  great, 
and  those  who  imitated  them,  and  the  still  lower  degra 
dation  of  the  peasantry.  Commerce,  that  enlightener  of 
nations,  has,  during  the  last  hundred  years,  done  much 
in  England  in  breaking  down  those  party-walls  which 
penned  in  knowledge  among  the  classes  of  its  immediate 


MERCANTILE  LECTURE.  245 

professors.  Much  still  remains  to  be  done ;  but  the  ef 
fect  has  been  already  seen  in  liberalizing  and  improving 
the  law,  the  literature,  and  the  science  of  England. 
They  have  come  forth  from  their  cloisters,  and  fitted 
themselves  to  the  society  of  men.  It  has  been  felt  among 
England's  merchants,  her  farmers,  and  her  mechanics. 
They  have  studied  their  own  interests,  they  claim  their 
own  rights,  they  instruct  those  who  were  heretofore  their 
teachers.  In  France  this  state  of  society  continued  un 
til  the  revolution.  It  was  from  this  cause  mainly  that 
the  French  revolution,  after  dawning  so  brightly,  was  so 
soon  and  so  long  overcast  with  dark  and  bloody  clouds. 
That  liberty  it  then  promised  did  not  come  until  two 
generations  had  been  successively  thinned  by  the  guillo 
tine  and  the  bayonet,  by  battle  and  massacre,  in  the 
streets  of  Paris  and  the  woods  of  La  Vendee,  on  the 
sands  of  Egypt  and  the  snows  of  Russia,  and  the  blood- 
drenched  plains  of  Flanders. 

And  even  now  on  what  foundations  rest  the  hopes, 
the  power,  the  future  protection  of  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  Frenchmen?  Not  upon  the  virtue  and  wisdom  of 
their  chiefs  and  rulers.  Not  upon  the  provisions  and 
pledges  of  laws  and  charters.  Not  even  upon  that  last 
and  sacred  resort  of  an  oppressed  people,  an  armed  resis 
tance  to  tyranny  when  it  becomes  too  grievous  to  be 
borne.  No,  not  upon  any  or  all  of  these,  honoured  and 
prized  as  they  may  well  be ;  for  all  of  these  have  here 
tofore  balked  the  hopes  of  the  patriot  and  the  calcula 
tions  of  statesmen.  No,  not  these,  but  upon  the  annu 
ally  increasing  thousands  of  the  men  of  "  young  France" 
whose  minds  have  been  opened  by  various  and  useful 
knowledge  who  read,  who  think,  and  who  reason. 


246  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

and  who  can  therefore  understand  and  maintain  the  du 
ties  of  their  rulers  and  the  true  interests  of  the  people. 

I  need  scarcely  say  that  it  was  to  a  state  of  society  in 
this  country,  wholly  different  from  that  of  France,  as 
France  once  was,  that  our  own  revolution  was  chiefly  in 
debted  for  its  calm  and  prosperous  issue. 

Here  was  a  public  fitted  by  reading  and  reflection  to 
comprehend,  and  to  feel  the  reasoning  of  the  patriots 
who  called  upon  them  to  withstand  the  aggressions  of  their 
rulers.  Here  was  a  people  upon  whom  the  wisdom  and 
argument  of  the  founders  of  our  constitution  could  not 
be  wasted.  Therefore  it  was,  that  America  alone,  of  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  has  passed  tranquilly  from  a 
warlike  revolution  to  a  peaceful  and  stable  republic.  This 
glorious  possession  of  regulated  liberty  it  is  for  us  to  pre 
serve  by  the  same  means  that  enabled  cur  fathers  to 
achieve  it.  The  member  of  an  ignorant  community 
must  hold  his  liberties  and  his  property  by  a  precarious 
tenure.  It  is  only  in  an  enlightened  republic  that  the 
people  know  all  their  rights,  and  feel  all  their  duties. 
Above  all,  it  is  there  only  that  the  rage  of  faction,  which 
in  ignorant  democracies  has  always  broken  out  into  blood 
shed  and  violent  revolution,  is  mitigated  into  the  fair  con 
tests  of  parties,  who  strive  for  victory  through  the  press 
and  at  the  polls,  according  to  the  rules  prescribed  by  the 
constitution  and  laws  of  their  country. 

But  these  exalted  duties  of  guarding  our  civil  liberties 
and  watching  on  the  bulwarks  of  our  constitution, 
though  the  most  precious  are  not  the  most  constant,  often 
not  the  most  useful  privileges  of  the  well-informed  and 
patriotic  citizen. 

There  are  numerous  subjects  of  internal  legislation,  of 
municipal  administration,  of  the  management  of  the  or- 


MERCANTILE  LECTURE.  247 

dinary  machinery  of  society,  forcing  themselves  upon 
the  attention  of  the  most  careless,  and  the  most  selfish, 
and  affecting  the  interests  and  happiness  of  every  man. 
The  questions  of  currency  and  banking,  and  interest 
and  usury,  the  laws  of  taxation,  and  public  debt,  alike 
applicable  to  the  finances  of  an  empire,  and  those  of  a 
town,  the  administration  of  poor  laws,  of  charities,  of 
schools,  of  prisons,  of  markets,  even  of  pawnbroker's  shops 
— all  these  are  subjects  involving  the  welfare  and  com 
forts  of  thousands.  Upon  all  of  them  we  may  have  the 
assistance  of  a  long-continued  and  a  broad  experience, 
and  of  the  reasoning  of  good  and  wise  men,  so  that  he 
who  presumes  to  decide  upon  any  of  them  from  his  own 
first  impressions,  without  consulting  those  aids,  is  in  his 
way  but  a  rash  theorist.  On  all  these  subjects,  quack 
ery,  under  the  disguise  of  plain  common-sense,  self-in 
terest  masked  as  philanthropy  or  public  spirit,  are  con 
stantly  at  work.  All  these  questions  require  in  such  a 
government  as  ours  a  large  and  intelligent  public,  some 
of  them  prepared  to  reason  and  investigate  for  themselves, 
and  many  well  fitted  to  comprehend  and  judge. 

Considerations  of  the  same  nature  give  a  similar  value 
to  the  general  cultivation  of  literature  and  of  taste  in 
the  arts.  Most  powerful  is  the  sway  exercised  by  those 
mighty  agents  over  the  morals  of  the  community. 

Theirs  is  the  potent  mastery 

O'er  the  mind's  sea  in  calm  and  storm, 
O'er  the  heart's  sunshine  and  its  showers, 
O'er  Passion's  moments,  bright  and  warm, 
O'er  Reason's  dark,  cold  hours.* 

Whether  or  no  you  chose  to  belong  to  it,  they  will 

*Halleck. 


248  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

form  a  public  for  themselves,  and  they  will  influence  and 
govern  it.  Of  that  public  your  friends  and  neighbours, 
your  wives  and  sisters  and  children,  will  be  a  part. 

This  influence  is  every  where.  It  pervades  the  my 
riads  of  books  which  the  prolific  press  pours  forth,  the 
daily  sheet,  the  light  periodical,  the  popular  exhibition, 
the  ornaments  of  our  houses,  the  conversation  of  our 
firesides. 

The  author  or  artist  who  has  the  power  of  pleasing, 
has  committed  to  his  charge  a  vast  control  over  the  tastes, 
feelings,  and  sentiments  of  all  within  his  reach.  But  he 
is  himself  re-acted  upon  by  those  whom  he  influences. 
He  that  hopes  to  please  must  accommodate  his  talent  to 
the  tastes  and  habits  of  those  whom  he  addresses.  "  Un 
happy  Dryden — "  said  the  great  ethical  poet  of  England, 
with  a  touching  brevity,  as  he  mourned  over  the  fatal 
prostitution  of  his  master's  genius,  dragged  down  from 
the  pure  elevation  whither  his  nature  gave  him  to  soar, 
and  forced  to  grovel  in  the  filth  his  patrons  loved.  In 
the  words  of  another  man  of  genius,*  kindred  to  his 
own,  but  of  happier  fortune  and  unspotted  fame,  lament 
ing  over  the  failure  of  that  poem  of  epic  chivalry  which 
Dryden  had  planned,  in  the  hope  of  rearing  a  monu 
ment  worthy  of  his  own  fame  and  that  of  his  country — 

"  Dryden  in  immortal  strain 

Had  raised  the  Table  Round,  again, 

But  that  a  ribbald  king  and  court, 

Bade  him  toil  on  to  make  them  sport  ; 

Demanded  for  their  niggard  pay, 

Fit  for  their  souls,  a  looser  lay, 

Licentious  satire,  song  and  play  ; 
The  world  defrauded  of  the  high  design, 
Profaned  the  God-given  strength,  and  marr'd  the  lofty  line." 

*  Walter  Scott. 


MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

Our  authors,  artists,  editors,  and  publishers  may  have  a 
ribbald  public  to  deal  with  as  well  as  Dryden  his  ribbald 
king  and  court.  If  your  ingenuous  minds  revolt  with 
disgust  at  that  thought,  you  will  feel  it  to  be  your  duty 
to  aid  in  averting  such  an  event  by  acquainting  your 
selves  with  a  sound,  an  undefiled,  and  wholesome  litera 
ture,  and  thus  becoming  a  part — and  if  a  part,  then  cer 
tainly  an  influential  and  ruling  part — of  that  reading 
public.  Thus  it  is  that  the  literature  which  now  serves 
to  amuse  your  youthful  hours  may  hereafter  be  the 
means  of  guarding  the  morality  of  your  own  homes 
from  contamination,  or  of  cheering,  animating,  and  aid 
ing  the  literary  talent  of  your  country  when  directed  to 
its  best  ends  of  truth  and  virtue. 

But  of  a  literature,  thus  guarded,  thus  directed,  and 
thus  purified,  how  rich  are  the  treasures,  how  excellent, 
how  elevating  the  influence  !  Not  by  barren  precept,  but 
by  example,  by  illustration,  by  constant  association  with 
the  purest  sources  of  pleasure  it  teaches  the  "noblest 
morals  of  the  heart."  For  in  directing  the  mind  to 
whatever  is  wise,  just,  pure,  or  lovely,  it  exalts  and  un- 
sensualizes  the  thoughts.  It  emancipates  the  soul  from 
the  bondage  of  the  world,  lifting  it  above  the  desires,  the 
cares,  the  meanness,  and  the  follies  of  the  present,  and 
teaching  it  to  reach  after,  and  in  part  to  know,  and  feel 
the  power  and  the  joys  of  its  future  and  better  being. 

I  have  thus  far  considered  the  advantages  of  a  liberal 
curiosity  as  confined  to  the  opening  of  new  sources  of 
happiness  within  yourselves,  or  as  diffusing  light  and 
truth  over  the  wide  surface  of  a  well-informed  public. 
But  it  would  be  unjust  to  the  native  talent  of  my  country 
did  I  omit  one  other,  and  not  the  least  happy  of  its  ef 
fects. 


250  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

I  will  not  meddle  with  the  controversy  on  the  exist 
ence,  or  the  causes  of  peculiar  original  genius — the  in 
quiry  whence  it  comes,  that  certain  individuals  are  spe 
cially  fitted  for  excellence  in  certain  walks  of  speculation 
or  of  art.  It  is  enough  that  this  difference  among  men 
does  exist.  There  are  minds  whose  best  powers  seem 
to  slumber  until  the  excitement  of  some  occupation  or 
study  congenial  to  their  faculties  rouses  them  into  gigan 
tic  vigour.  Now,  the  acquisition  of  varied,  though  it  be  not 
profound  knowledge,  is  precisely  the  most  efficient  mode 
of  presenting  to  every  ardent  and  stirring  mind  the  sub 
ject  best  fitted  to  its  powers  and  tastes.  Then  it  is  that 
natural  talent  feels  its  strength.  The  attention  is  roused, 
the  curiosity  vividly  excited,  the  faculties  sharpened.  The 
duties  of  life  need  not  be  neglected,  for  that  would  be 
unworthy  of  a  mind  capable  of  such  energies.  It  tries 
its  strength  in  solitude  and  silence ;  but  society,  perhaps 
the  civilized  world,  at  last  gathers  the  fruits  of  those 
solitary  efforts. 

Such  were  the  studies  and  experiments  of  Benjamin 
Franklin.  I  need  not  dilate  on  his  character,  or  the  inci 
dents  of  his  life,  for  they  are  doubtless  familiar  to  you. 
His  unrivalled  sagacity  and  common  sense  must  have 
given  the  printer  of  Philadelphia  wealth  and  distinction 
any  where.  The  revolution  calling  out  as  it  did  the 
whole  talent  of  the  nation,  would  have  made  him  a  legis 
lator  and  a  statesman.  But  it  was  his  taste  for  general 
knowledge  and  love  of  scientific  information,  turning  his 
mind  to  observation  and  experiment  upon  nature,  that 
made  him  the  discoverer  of  the  laws  of  heat  and  of  the 
principle  of  electricity.  This  added  dignity  and  influence 
to  his  character  and  opinions,  in  his  own  time,  whilst  in  the 
present  day,  the  patriot  whom  we  honour  as  one  of  the 


MERCANTILE  LECTURE.  251 

founders  of  our  independence  and  our  constitution,  is  re 
vered  by  every  other  civilized  people  as  the  sage  who  has 
given  to  their  dwellings  protection  against  the  lightning  of 
of  heaven  and  comfort  amidst  the  blasts  of  winter. 

In  the  same  manner  it  has  happened  within  our  own 
times  that  some  of  the  most  splendid  works  of  literary  ge 
nius  and  the  most  admirable  discoveries  of  scientific 
investigation  have  been  produced  by  the  leisure  studies 
of  men  engaged  in  commercial  business  or  professional 
labour. 

There  is  scarce  a  single  science  among  those  to  be  ex 
plained  to  you  by  the  eminent  lecturers  who  are  to  suc 
ceed  me  that  will  not  furnish  some  striking  example  of 
this  fact.  Look,  for  instance,  at  chemistry.  Sixty  years 
ago  it  was  a  compound  of  wild  hypothesis,  and  insulated 
facts  or  unexplained  processes.  The  common  consent  of 
the  scientific  world  ascribes  its  elevation  to  the  rank  of  a 
science  to  Priestley.  He  was  by  profession  and  prefer 
ence  throughout  life  a  teacher  of  religion  and  of  learning, 
and  an  unwearied  and  prolific  theological  and  metaphysi 
cal  author.  He  was  not — at  least  in  my  judgment,  for  it 
may  be  that  in  this  respect  I  wrong  his  memory — he  was 
not  possessed  of  any  remarkable  force  as  a  moral  rea- 
soner.  Nor  had  he,  I  think,  that  rare  power  of  steady, 
long-continued,  unbroken  attention  which  fixes  the 
whole  mind  continually  upon  its  chosen  subject,  until 
the  very  foundations  of  the  inquiry  are  laid  bare.  But 
he  had  to  an  uncommon  degree  that  liberal  curiosity, 
that  thirst  for  information  to  which  no  knowledge  ap 
pears  indifferent.  To  this  were  united  incessant  ac 
tivity  of  thought  and  singular  sagacity,  minuteness  and 
clearness  of  observation.  An  accidental  circumstance  of 
his  life,  his  residing  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  great 


252  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

brewery  by  casually  calling  his  attention  to  the  pecu 
liar  appearances  attending  the  extinction  of  lighted 
chips  in  the  gas  floating  over  fermented  liquor,  directed 
his  curiosity  to  the  examination  and  analysis  of  the  se 
veral  gases,  and  the  curious  results  of  his  first  experiments 
led  to  others,  which  in  his  hands  soon  became  the  science 
of  Pneumatic  Chemistry. 

To  chemistry  he  devoted  his  leisure  time  reserved 
from  the  faithful  discharge  of  numerous  other  duties — 
and  that  time  only.  No  man  could  be  more  patient, 
more  industrious,  or  more  ingenious  in  inventing  and  ap 
plying  those  experiments  so  happily  termed  by  Bacon, 
"  the  judicious  interrogation  of  nature."  His  interroga 
tions  followed  each  other  with  restless  rapidity,  and  na 
ture  replied  by  the  revelations  of  mystery  after  mystery. 

Thus  did  Priestley  win  for  himself  the  proud  title  of 
the  father  of  modern  chemistry.  This  science  has  since 
been  wonderfully  augmented  in  its  power  over  nature,  as 
well  as  improved  in  the  philosophical  accuracy  of  its  ar 
rangement  and  nomenclature ;  but  the  brilliant  discove 
ries  and  labours  of  subsequent  chemists,  from  Lavoisier 
to  Davy,  who  have  devoted  their  whole  lives  to  this 
study,  so  far  from  eclipsing  the  glories  of  Priestley's  lei 
sure,  may  in  fact  be  considered  as  being  but  their  deve- 
lopement  and  consequences. 

Turning  from  the  material  to  the  moral  sciences,  we 
may  observe  a  precisely  similar  instance  in  the  history  of 
political  economy. 

It  is  with  the  reverence  due  to  an  intellect,  of  which  I 
can  never  enough  admire  the  penetration,  the  order, 
the  comprehensiveness,  and  the  strength — with  the  gra 
titude  due  to  one  whom  I  view  as  a  public  benefactor,  and 
to  whom  I  feel  deeply  indebted  for  the  discipline  and  iro- 


MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 


253 


provement  of  my  own  mind,  that  I  pronounce  the  name 
of  David  Ricardo. 

He  was,  as  many  of  my  hearers  know,  a  London 
banker,  and  acquired  in  that  business  a  most  ample  for 
tune.  He  was  also  many  years  a  member  of  the  British 
parliament,  where  he  was  very  prominent  and  efficient 
on  all  subjects  of  finance  and  currency.  Yet  amidst  the 
daily  pressure  of  such  employments,  he  was  able  to  con 
centrate  his  mind  to  one  favourite  investigation,  that  of 
the  principles  of  political  economy.  The  French  and 
Italian  economists  had  been  fertile  in  ingenious  theories, 
which,  though  they  had  not  the  merit  of  truth,  had  the 
utility  of  affording  a  convenient  basis  for  inquiry.  Sir 
James  Stewart  had  collected  many  facts,  and  explained 
some  of  them.  Galliani,  Turgot,  and,  above  all,  Adam 
Smith,  had  gone  further.  They  had  arranged  and  ana 
lyzed,  and  given  to  political  economy  the  method  and 
clearness,  but  neither  the  precision  nor  the  certainty  of  a 
science.  What  the  statesmen  and  philosophers  of  Eu 
rope  had  failed  to  achieve,  whether  in  the  learned  ease  of 
universities,  or  aided  by  the  experience  of  the  bureau, 
was  effected  by  the  English  banker  in  hours  borrowed 
from  the  turmoil  of  the  exchange  and  the  stock-market. 

He  it  was,  who,  when  the  governments,  the  capitalists, 
and  the  talent  of  Great  Britain,  during  the  suspension 
of  specie  payments,  after  deceiving  themselves,  had  com 
bined  to  delude  the  people  on  the  depreciation  of  bank 
paper,  dissipated  that  delusion  by  the  clear  evidence  of 
reason  and  fact,  proved  the  mischief  it  was  producing, 
and  pointed  out  the  remedy.  His  other  and  more  elabo 
rate  writings,  on  the  fundamental  principles  of  political 
economy,  are  full  of  the  most  original  and  the  severest 
reasoning,  but  always  leading  to  the  most  practical  con- 


254  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

elusions.     Possessing,  in  a  most   eminent  degree,  the 
talent  of  philosophical  abstraction  and  generalization, 
his  sagacity  detected,  and  his  rigorous  analysis  demon 
strated  the  principles  which  pervade  the  laws  of  value 
and  exchange ;  and  he  pursued  these  principles  to  their 
ultimate  results  with  a  close  hut  bold  logic,  that,  from  the 
apparent  contradiction  of  many  of  its  inferences  to  par 
ticular  facts,  or  the  experience  of  life,  sometimes  bore  to 
the  careless  or  prejudiced  reasoner  the  air  of  paradox  or 
palpable  error.     This  mental  peculiarity,  which  might 
have  been  expected  in  a  solitary  and  studious  man  of 
philosophical  genius  like  Newton  or  Locke,  was  the  more 
singular  and  striking  in  a  man  habitually  and  daily  con 
versant  with  those  practical  details,  the  scientific  theory  of 
which  he  investigated  and  expounded.     But  when  those 
general  laws  and  principles,  thus  obscure  or  startling  in 
their  abstract  and  naked  enunciation,  are  correctly  applied 
to  the  actual  affairs  of  life  and  their  mutual  combination 
and  limitation  with,  and  of  each  other  are  traced  out,  then 
their  truth,  their  beauty,  and  their  application  become  evi 
dent,  and  we  see  and  acknowledge  in  Ricardo,  the  true 
union  of  the  sagacious  man  of  business  and  the  profound 
philosopher.  His  masterly  analysis  of  the  mannerin  which 
labour  governs  the  exchangeable  value  of  the  products  of 
human  industry,  his  discovery  of  the  ruling  principle  of 
the  laws  regulating  the  rates  of  profit  and  interest,  his 
developement  of  the  true  doctrine  of  agricultural  rent,  and 
his  application  of  the  whole  to  the  theory  of  the  opera 
tion  of  taxes,  appear  to  me  to  be  the  most  admirable 
intellectual  exploits  of   the  present  age.      They  have 
formed  a  new  era  in  the  science  of  enlightened  political 
administration  :  and  unless  my  admiration  of  his  genius 
deceive  me,  Ricardo  is  destined  to  be  the  guide  and  in- 


MERCANTILE    LECTURE. 


255 


structor  of  future  statesmen,  and  the  legislator  of  all  well- 
governed  nations. 

I  have  trespassed  too  long  upon  your  patience,  but  I 
cannot  refrain  from  adding  to  these  memorable  examples 
in  the  two  most  modern  of  the  sciences,  another  of  emi 
nence  in  literature,  gained  under  similar  circumstances. 
It  is  one  that,  whilst  it  illustrates  my  argument,  affords 
me  a  most  fitting  occasion  to  pay  a  passing  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  a  venerable  friend,  the  late  William  Roscoe  of 
Liverpool.  He  has  long  ago  received  the  richest  offerings 
of  American  eulogy.  The  praise  which  Washington 
Irving*  has  bestowed  upon  him.  as  a  scholar  and  a  gen 
tleman,  must  be  familiar  to  most  of  you.  With  his 
accustomed  graceful  and  polished  eloquence  of  style,  he 
has  painted  Roscoe  as  having  almost  created  his  own 
mind,  springing  up  and  forcing  its  Avay  through  a  thou 
sand  obstacles ;  as  self-prompted,  self-sustained,  and  almost 
self-educated  :  conquering  every  obstacle,  and  making  his 
own  road  to  fame  and  fortune,  and  after  becoming  one 
of  the  ornaments  of  the  nation,  turning  the  whole  force 
of  his  talents  and  influence  to  advance  and  embellish  his 
native  town.  He  has  pointed  out  "  his  private  life  as 
peculiarly  worthy  the  attention  of  the  citizens  of  our 
young  and  busy  country,  where  literature  and  the  ele 
gant  arts  must  grow  up  side  by  side  with  the  coarse 
plants  of  daily  necessity,  and  must  depend  for  their  cul 
ture,  not  on  the  exclusive  devotion  of  time  or  wealth, 
but  on  hours  and  seasons  snatched  from  the  pursuits  of 
worldly  interests  by  intelligent  and  public- spirited  indivi 
duals.''  He  has  alluded  to  the  dignity  with  which  Ros 
coe  sustained  the  reverses  of  fortune  in  his  old  age,  and 

*  Sketch  Book. 


256  MERCANTILE  LECTURE. 

the  solace  he  then  found  in  the  company  of  those  mute 
loved  associates,  whom  his  muse  has  hailed  as  the 
"  teachers  of  wisdom,  chiefs  of  elder  art." 

To  the  justice  or  the  beauty  of  Irving's  eulogy  in 
these  regards,  I  could  add  nothing  :  but  it  was  my  own 
good  fortune  to  have  viewed  Roscoe  under  yet  another 
aspect. 

The  circumstance  of  my  having,  as  a  member  of  the 
legislature  of  this  state,  been  officially  engaged  upon  the 
improvement  of  the  penitentiary  system,  which  subject 
had  attracted  much  of  Mr.  Roscoe's  attention,  led  to  the 
renewal  of  a  slight  personal  acquaintance  that  I  had 
formed  with  him  several  years  before,  and  to  a  correspon 
dence  that  lasted  till  his  death.  I  can  bear  testimony  to 
the  philanthropic  zeal  with  which  he  entered  into  the 
examination  of  that  and  of  every  question  of  improve 
ment  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic — to  the  warm  interest 
he  took  in  every  thing  that  concerned  the  cause  of  civil 
or  religious  liberty,  of  education,  or  of  humanity ;  to  his 
zeal,  his  courage,  and  his  unwearied  efforts  in  promoting 
the  success  of  all  of  them. 

Roscoe's  reputation,  as  a  scholar  and  an  author,  was 
principally  gained  by  his  familiarity  with  the  beautiful 
language,  the  elegant  literature,  and  the  fine  arts  of 
Italy,  and  by  his  excellent  historical  works,  by  which  he 
placed  those  hitherto  inaccessible  branches  of  knowledge 
within  the  reach  of  the  mere  English  reader.  Now  I 
know  of  no  finer  example  of  the  combination  of  the 
beautiful  with  the  useful,  and  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  one  may  be  made  not  only  to  harmonize  with  but 
to  aid  the  other,  than  that  in  which  Roscoe  applied  the 
reputation  and  influence  won, and  the  literary  talent  culti 
vated  by  studies  such  as  these,  to  all  the  best  and  most 


MERCANTILE    LECTURE.  257 

practical  uses  of  society,  and  among  them,  to  the  im 
provement  of  the  coarsest,  and  in  the  view  of  a  fastidious 
mind,  the  most  revolting  parts  of  the  machinery  of  so 
cial  government,  to  the  statistics  of  vice,  the  police  of 
prisons,  and  the  prevention  and  punishment  of  crime. 

His  memory  has  yet  other  and  special  claims  upon  us 
who  are  here  assembled. 

As  teaching  by  his  own  example  and  by  his  writings 
the  value  of  a  union  of  commerce  with  intellectual  pur 
suits  ;  as  showing,  by  his  life,  how  they  may  be  made 
to  harmonize,  and  to  benefit  each  other,  as  the  founder  of 
the  Atheneum  of  Liverpool,  upon  which  this  and  simi 
lar  establishments  in  America  were  modelled,  we  may 
justly  regard  him  as  one  of  the  fathers  of  this  institu 
tion.  Such,  I  am  sure,  would  have  been  his  own  feeling 
towards  it ;  he  would  have  joyed  over  the  advantages  that 
it  now  affords  to  the  youth  of  New-  York  with  a  truly 
paternal  fondness. 

He  died  during  the  last  summer,  at  the  venerable  age 
of  eighty  years,  retaining,  to  the  very  last,  his  activity 
of  mind,  his  love  of  letters}  and  his  zeal  for  the  service 
of  mankind.  His  death  was  mourned  by  the  intelligent 
and  the  good  of  Great  Britain,  as  a  public  loss.  It  is 
fitting  that  we,  too,  should  do  him  honour.  I  have 
therefore  thought  that  this  place,  and  the  occasion  of 
opening  a  course  of  varied  instruction  before  a  commer 
cial  audience  of  New- York,  demanded  this  public  tribute 
to  the  talents  and  worth  of  WILLIAM  ROSCOE, 


ERRATUM. 

P.  190,  line  21,  for  "  twenty-eight,"  read  "  thirty." 


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